


White Picket Fence

by Anahoney13, princesssimi



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, F/M, Happy Ending, M/M, Self-Acceptance, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:26:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 27,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10141532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anahoney13/pseuds/Anahoney13, https://archiveofourown.org/users/princesssimi/pseuds/princesssimi
Summary: Richard finds love in an unexpected place. She is determined to help him accept his monster side. they have a lot to over come from unaccepting families to evil ex's that wont go away to Jean-Claud's smart ass comments. Will Richard mess everything up or can they work together and have the White Picket Fence life he always wanted?





	1. I Know your Secret

I walked into my biology class glancing down at my phone. I hoped Professor Zeeman didn’t run over tonight, my parents would not be happy if I skipped out on another family dinner. Then again hopefully he did, I don’t think I could stand another night of “Isn’t Melody great?” My younger sister was the family star. Straight A’s in every subject and wanted to be a doctor. I had barely skated by in high school, was doing the same in college, and was going for a good old Business Management degree, “How could I ever save the world with that?”  
I took my seat in the dead center of the room. I wasn’t in the way back and hidden but wasn’t front and center in the spotlight, just how I liked it. I pulled out my laptop and the assignment for today before pulling out my current read to wait for class to start.  
“Ms. Anderson, do you have your assignment?” Mr. Zeeman’s voice asked from just in front of me. I looked up at him, eyes following the line of his perfectly toned body, packaged oh so nicely in a dark red dress shirt. His dark brown eyes were friendly as he looked down at me and he had left his copper hair down to fall around his face.  
“Right here.” I handed it up to him before sliding my book away, class had started. I watched as he moved down the row to the next student, collecting our assignments one by one, the roots of his teaching career in Junior High school still showing. He was known for never allowing his classes to be larger than 20 students, and always took the time to get to know each and every one of us. My best Friend, Sandy, was his TA and said she saw more papers with phone numbers on them than without. I couldn’t blame the girls who tried, there was no denying that he was mouth-watering, but I found it slightly tacky to chase after your professor. He soon was back in front of the class and had started his lecture, passion filling his voice.   
I walked out of class over three hours later, as usual, he had gone over time, but none of us had ever complained. I waved goodbye to Sandy and started walking across the dark campus of UMSL. I had been lucky enough to get an apartment close to campus but far from all my classes. I shivered slightly in the cool night air, I should have known better than to have not brought a sweater with me. Biology never got out before dark and there was never a time during the school year where nights in St. Louis were warm. I reached into my bag as I rounded the corner and saw my apartment building, and started to dig for my keys, cursing myself for once again not putting them in my pocket, I would never learn.   
I heard a swoosh and felt like I had been hit by a car. I soared through the air and landed on the hood of a car. My scream was lost as every bit of air left my body on impact. Suddenly there was a face snarling over my own, I was being attacked by a vampire. I screamed and closed my eyes, a small part of my brain reminding me not to look in the thing’s eyes. I tried to struggle, but it was useless, it acted like it hadn’t felt a thing. I tried to scrunch my shoulders up, to protect my neck. I felt its cold dead fingers wrap in my hair and jerk my head back exposing my neck. I screamed again, knowing I was about to become dinner for the undead. Don’t get me wrong I had always been fascinated by the supernatural but this was not how I wanted my first meeting with the undead to go. Suddenly the body was lifted from me, its hand letting go of my hair. I fell back against the car and slowly sat up, body hurting. Tomorrow was going to suck.  
I looked over to see a man standing over the cowering vampire, shoulders shaking. I could feel a faint something in the air, almost like an electrical charge. I looked at the man and recognized the shirt. I gasped as he reached down and tore the vampire in half is if it were paper.  
“M-mr. Zeeman?” I asked cautiously sliding down from the car. He whirled to look at me, eyes flashing amber in the street light. “Are you okay?” I saw the panic on his face as he recognized me, I could tell he was ready to bolt, “Don’t.” I said as I reached out a hand, “Please don’t run.” I slowly walked toward him, my perfectly normal, if not insanely hot bio professor was actually a ….. Lycanthrope. Couldn’t tell what animal, not just from his eyes.   
“You can’t tell anyone, I’ll lose everything.” His voice was deeper than normal, nearly a growl even as it held a tone of begging.  
“I won’t tell anyone,” I shook my head. It was illegal to discriminate against wereanimals, but everyone knew it was done, “You saved me. I’ll keep your secret.”  
“Are you hurt?” He asked walking toward me.  
“It will be worse tomorrow.” I shrugged. That was a mistake and I gasped as my muscles screamed.  
“You should go to a hospital.”  
“I’ll be ok.” I brushed him off, I had had worse after falling off of horses, and I would be fine. “You need to clean up though if you don’t want anyone knowing what you are,” I said motioning to the blood that coated his hands and had sprayed his shirt and face when he had torn the vampire apart. “This is my apartment if you want to come up and wash off.” I said nodding toward the building.  
“That would be ….. nice.” He smiled, eyes bleeding back to their usual brown.   
“What should we do about that?” I asked pointing at the two parts of the vampire.  
“I’ll make a call.” He said pulling his cell phone out with a sigh. I grabbed my bag from the sidewalk and watched as he waited for the person on the other end to pick up. “There is a dead Vamp just off campus, he was attacking a student.” I was shocked when he hung up, as if he hadn’t waited for who was on the other line to answer. “All taken care of.”  
“Who are you?” I asked without thinking.  
“Would you believe me if I said, ‘if I told you I’d have to kill you’?” he asked with a grin.  
“After that conversation, yes.” I grinned back. “Come, on.” I said heading toward the apartment door, “We stay out here too much longer someone will see you and they’ll ask questions I don’t think you want to answer.” Again he looked down at the blood like had forgotten about it.   
“Right,” Smirking at him I lead him into my apartment building, glad I was only on the second floor, less chance of running into anyone then if I had lived on say the sixth floor. As I unlocked my doors I was trying to remember how I had left the apartment that morning. Had I picked up the clothes from laundry the other day? Had I washed dishes last night? Too late now.   
“Bathroom is at the end of the hall on the left,” I said looking back at him, heart speeding up. The school's best-looking professor was in my apartment. “I think I might have a shirt for you if you need,” I said trying to remember if Anthony had left any shirts here after we had split.  
“Hopefully I can salvage the undershirt.” He said starting to unbutton his shirt. I watched him for a minute, fingers opening each button with precision. I looked away, shaking my head and smiling, no one would ever believe me, “What?” he asked, voice filled with something close to self-consciousness.  
“I have the hottest professor on campus in my apartment undressing, and even if I told anyone they wouldn’t believe me.”   
“Hottest professor on campus?” he grinned down at me.  
“Please, knowing what you are, I know that you had to have heard the whispers in the room. Not to mention I don’t think any other professors get papers riddled with phone numbers.” I reached out for the shirt he had just finished unbuttoning, “Here I’ll go wash that for you.”  
“On the left?” he clarified walking into the hallway.  
“Yup.” I dropped my bag on the couch and took his shirt still warm from his body over to the kitchen sink. I ran cold water and filled the sink. I pushed the shirt in and waited till the fabric soaked the water up, becoming heavy and sinking to the bottom. I dropped some dawn dish soap into the water and swished it around a little till suds formed. Leaving the shirt to soak I made my way to the bathroom. Professor Zeeman was standing in front my sink, chest bare and hair pulled back, wet around his hairline. I swore my mouth started watering looking at him. “So can I ask a question?” I said leaning against the doorway, as soon as my back touched the frame I whimpered without meaning too.  
“Not until you let me look at your back, you are hurt if you like it or not.” he motioned to my toilet. Rolling my eyes at him I reached in front of him and opened my medicine cabinet. I grabbed the jar of Icy Hot and handed it to him before turning and straddling the toilet backward. I grabbed the hem of my t-shirt and began to lift. I gasped feeling the muscles pulling all around my back. Professor Zeeman’s hands took the shirt from my hands and helped me to pull it over my head. I tried to look back but couldn’t.  
“How bad is it?” I asked as he went to his knees behind me, opening the jar.  
“Well, your back is one color,” he said as if that explain it, “one solid mass of dark blue bruise.” He said gently rubbing the ointment into my skin starting at the base of my back, “You said you had a question?”  
I tried to even my breath against the pain, “What are you, Mr. Zeeman?”  
“First, we have both now seen each other without our shirts on, I think outside of class you can safely call me Richard. Second like you said, I’m a Lycanthrope.”  
“If I get to call you Richard, call me Jewel; and yes I know you are a Lycanthrope, but what kind?” I crossed my arms across the back of the toilet, laying my arms on them, “What do you turn into every full moon?”  
“What do you think I turn into?” he asked, fingers maybe an inch below my bra strap.  
I thought over the different types of were I knew of. “Fox, you definitely become a furry little fox every month,” I swore a heard a slight growl behind me.  
“Try again.” He said, apparently he didn’t find me amusing.  
“Hmm,” I thought about it, what other harmless animals were there? “Are you a weredog? I mean I know they are extremely rare and all, but I could totally see you pulling off the cute puppy thing.”  
“Wolf, I’m a wolf.” There was definitely a growl in his voice that time. Normally I would have teased him about it but he chose that moment to slide his fingers under my bra. I kept my mouth shut until he had finished. “You do realize how much this stuff stinks right?” He asked helping me off the toilet.  
“Yeah, but it works.” I shrugged and winced. This was not going to be a fun weekend. Mr. Zee- Richard, helped me to put my shirt back on and I couldn’t help the blush that spread over my cheeks as I looked up at him, “I think I forgot to say thank you for saving me.” my voice came out a near whisper.  
“Don’t mention it.” He smiled down at me, a gentle tug of lips. We stood like that for longer than we should have, staring into each other’s eyes, “I should go.” He said.  
“Right.” I nodded. He grabbed the white T-shirt he had put over the shower rail and pulled it on over his head. I followed him back into my apartment and to the door.   
“Good night Jewel.” He said opening the door.  
“Good night Richard.” I smiled and watched him descend the stairs. Closing and locking my door I flicked all the lights off and headed to bed. Curling up under the cool blankets I drifted off to dreams about amber eyes, soft brown hair, and wolves.


	2. Breakfast at Jewel's

I woke up with a groan. My back was so stiff that I could barely move. I slid out of bed whimpering, I shuffled to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of juice from the fridge. I went to drop the glass in the sink when I saw the dark red shirt still floating in the now pink-tinged water. Professor Zeeman’s shirt. I pulled the plug from the sink and slowly squeezed the shirt out. I carried it with me to bathroom and tossed it over the towel rack to dry. I carefully pulled my shirt off and looked at my back in the mirror. He had been right my back was one single bruise. I filled the bathtub with the warmest water I could and added several scoops of Epsom salt and a couple drops of a few of my favorite essential oils. I eased myself into the steaming water. I grabbed my inflatable bath pillow and stuck it behind my head and closed my eyes, no better way to start your pain filled day than with a hot bath. 

I slowly pulled myself out of the bath a half hour later, the water cold on my skin. I toweled off and did a few stretches ignoring the pain. I heard a knock on my door and groaned, who the hell was here? I wrapped the towel around myself and walked out, “I’m coming, I’m coming.” I yelled to whoever was on the other side of the door. If Sandy had forgotten her key again I was going to kill her. I opened the door and found myself face to face with Richard Zeeman. “Professor, I mean Richard, what are you doing here?”

“I figured you would be too sore to cook so I brought you breakfast.” He said holding up a bag.

“Thanks, um come in.” I said stepping back to let him in, “Can you give me a minute to get dressed?”

“Of course.” He smiled down at me. I headed into my room and closed the door dropping my towel to the floor. I pulled on a pair of yoga pants and was searching for a tank top with built in bra when my phone rang. I grabbed it from the nightstand and groaned, it was my mom. I answered the phone and left it on speaker so I could continue looking for a shirt. “Hello, Mother.”

“Where were you last night?” she demanded, there’s my mother, no pleasantries. 

“Class ran late, I was going to call you but my phone died.”

“Really your class ran late again?”

Before I could answer Richard’s voice came from the main area of the apartment, “Jewel where do you keep your coffee?” 

“Do you have a guy in your apartment? Is that why you didn’t come over for Family dinner last night?”

“Mom I’m not doing this right now,” I said finding a purple tank top. “I will talk to you later.” I hung up the phone and pulled the shirt gingerly over my head. I walked back out to the main apartment, “No coffee sorry.” I smiled.

“You’re a college student and you don’t drink coffee?” Richard said turning to me. 

“Could never stand the taste.” I grinned, he had found my dishes and silver wear and had set my small table. Two plates piled with the food he had brought and silver set next to them, “Besides, breakfast is for juice and milk.” I said walking over to the cabinet with my glasses. I reached up to grab one and gasped pulling the muscles in my back.

“I can get that for you if you want,” Richard said rushing over. He stood directly behind me, only an inch to spare between our bodies. 

“That would be great.” I smiled back at him. He reached around me and pulled two glasses down for us and took them to the table. “So Milk or Juice?” I asked opening the fridge.

“What type of juice?” He asked.

“Apple Juice.”

“No OJ?”

“Can’t stand the stuff.”

“Milk.” He said with a slight shake of his head. I grabbed the gallon and brought it over to the table and filled both glasses. I put the milk away before sitting down at the  
table.

“Thanks again for bringing breakfast over,” I said with a smile. 

“It’s no problem, I figure after being thrown onto a car last night that you would be a little sore.”

“Oh, I am. Should probably do some stretches today but don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“You act like you’ve been hurt like this before.” He said with a raised brow.

I swallowed my bite of egg before answering his implied question, “Not to this extent but I took up Horseback riding in high school. I fell more than once.” I grinned.

“Horses tend to be a little adverse to us.” He grinned back.

“I can’t imagine why.” I felt a giggle slip from my lips. My phone chose that moment to ring. I glanced at the caller ID and groaned closing my eyes, it was my father.

“Problems?” Richard asked looking over at me with concern.

“Let’s just say when you asked where I kept the coffee I had my mom on speaker phone and she was calling to find out why I wasn’t at family dinner last night. And now my father is calling me.”

“Are you going to answer?”

I looked down contemplating, was I going to answer? If I didn’t would they come over or would they keep calling, I sighed, “I guess I am.” I closed my eyes and braced myself before answering, “Hi daddy.”

“Your mother is near meltdown mode young lady. She said you blew off family dinner to sleep with some guy who is still there.”

“Dad I told mom the reason I didn’t make dinner last night was that class ran late, by the time Professor Zeeman let us go I would have been an hour late to dinner after walking home getting my car and driving home. And yes there is a guy here, but I have several friends on their way over, we are having a study group.” As far as things went it was only a partial lie, in reality, I would have gotten there only ten to twenty minutes late before the vampire attack which they did not need to know about.

“Please make sure you are here next week, your mother is starting to nag me for us to come see you for a weekend.”

“I’ll be there.” I sighed.

“Go join your study group I will try to calm your mother.”

“Thanks, daddy.”

“I love you Jewels”

“Love you too.” I hung up and looked up to find Richard staring at me. “What?”

“You lied to your parents.”

“I did not lie, you did run class over last night as usual and I would have been late, just not that late until the vamp attacked me. And I do have friends coming over today, just not until tonight and again they didn’t need to know that.”

He shook his head smiling, “Had I ever even tried to bluff to my parents like that my mother would have skinned me alive.”

“It’s hard to imagine you scared of anyone, especially after last night.”

“You’ve never met my mother.” He chuckled, “So what are you going to school for, I know it’s not biology.”

“Why do you say that?” I responded 

“Because you are on the verge of c teetering on a B, biology majors are the A students.” He smiled.

“You’re right not a biology major, business major.” I grinned.

“So why biology?”

“I learned in high school that I should never be in a lab with chemistry experiments.”

“Are you telling me that you’re clumsy?”

“Not clumsy so much as inattentive, my mind wanders, not good with chemistry.”

“Definitely not.” He chuckled.

“If you don’t mind me asking what’s it like to be a werewolf? How were you turned?”

“Bad vaccine.” The chuckle this time was dark and self-loathing, this absolutely gorgeous guy hated who he was. “As for being a lycanthrope, well it depends on the day.”

“You don’t like it, though do you?”

“That easy to read?”

I shrugged, “I’m about four credits away from a psychology degree. Changed my mind just before my last semester.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.”

“You don’t give up do you?” 

“Not normally.”

“When I decided to become a teacher I decided to get the vaccines to make sure I couldn’t catch the lycanthrope disease. I got a bad batch and the next full moon I turned  
into the thing I always feared.”

I felt bad for asking, “I sorry.” 

“It’s been almost twenty years, you would think I’d be used to it by now.”

“Why aren’t you?”

“Nope, your turn to answer a question, why didn’t you finish your psychology degree?”

“I went into psychology to make my parents happy. My baby sister is the star of the family, has always had straight A’s, is on the debate team and the scholastic decathlon, runs track in the fall and plays baseball in the spring. She decided in 8th grade that she was going to become a doctor so she could save people. I slid by with C’s and B’s, never played sports, never was in any after school activities. When I made it to college I was tired of hearing about hearing how wonderful and perfect she was so I thought going for something that would help people would earn me some points.” I shrugged, “It didn’t. It was still all about Melody, it was still the why can’t you be more like your sister. So when it came time to sign up for my last semester of classes I said screw it, started all over and went for a business degree.”

“That’s shitty.”

“That’s my family for you.” I shrugged. “My turn again, why don’t you like being a werewolf?”

He looked down at his plate. “I’m a monster, what is there to like?” I could hear the disgust in his voice, it bothered me.

“Look at me,” I said, voice leaving no room for discussion. I waited for his dark chocolate brown eyes were looking directly at mine, “You are not a monster. Don’t you dare try to argue with me,” I cut him off as soon as he opened his mouth to argue with me, “You saved my life yesterday. If you weren’t a werewolf I would have died yesterday. If you hadn’t been able to hear me screaming for help from who knows how far away If you hadn’t been able to get their as fast as you did I would be dead right now. You got dealt a shitty hand and yeah you could have become a monster but you didn’t. You use what you were given to help people, you used it to help me.”

He shook his head, “You don’t know the things I’ve done, the people I’ve hurt.”

“That’s it.” I stood up ignoring the pull of my bruised back and stalked around the table so he had to look up at me. “You are a good person.”

“But I’m not.” Before I could stop myself my hand flashed out and I smacked him.

“Say you are a good person.”

“You hit me.”

“I will not allow you to sit and call yourself a monster. You saved me, I would be dead if not for you. If the only way to get you to understand that you are a good person is to smack you every time you say you are a monster I will.”

“You have to be crazier than Anita.” He laughed.

“Who?”

“Never mind.”

I raised my hand looking down at him, “Say it.”

“If I don’t are you going to smack me again?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a good person.”

I put my hand down and smiled at him, “Thank you, and one of these days you are going to believe it.”

“I take it then this isn’t going to be a onetime breakfast?’ he asked smiling up at me.

“Oh, it is because if you ever show up before no one again I will leave you to sit on the porch.”

He laughed, a full forced head thrown back to laugh, “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” I grinned easing myself back down into my chair.

“It was one.” He grinned.


	3. Secrets Revieled

I had given up on the kitchen table and the couch and had moved to the point of online classes where you are sprawled across the floor on your stomach in front of your computer books and papers everywhere like a library had thrown up. I was going to strangle Sandy for talking me into taking online sociology, even if it was a step closer to me have a double major. When there was a knock at the door I nearly screamed in joy. I closed the laptop and pushed myself up just as whoever it was knocked again. “I’m coming,” I yelled. I opened to see Richard standing there, eyes wide in panic. “Are ok?” I stepped aside and let him in.  I watched as he passed around my living room, I could feel energy pouring off of him. I quickly closed and locked the door. “Richard sit down.” He collapsed onto my couch eyes still wide.

“I’m a horrible person.” It was an improvement from him calling himself a monster but not by much. I walked over and knelt in front of him.

“Richard, you are not a bad person, how many times do I have to tell you this?”

He laughed bitterly, “You wouldn’t say that if you knew what I had just done.”

“What did you do?” I asked calmly.

“I enjoyed it, I enjoyed hurting her.” My heart started to race. I didn’t know what he was talking about but I had to help him, Richard would never hurt someone, I knew that.

“Who did you hurt Richard?”

“Anita.” The name was said like it should mean everything.

“Who is Anita, Richard?” I pushed his hair back out of his face, surprised by how soft it was, “Your girlfriend?”

“Not exactly.” He looked at me, pupils slightly smaller but still filled with panic, “we were engaged once, years ago. She couldn’t handle me being a shifter, and then I couldn’t handle her turning into whatever she is.”

“Start at the beginning, why couldn’t she handle you being a shifter? What did she do that made you think she couldn’t handle it?”

“It was my fault, she saw a battle, I killed the old leader, I had to.” He drew a breath as he went back into the old memory, “He had put a price on her head, hired a hitman to kill her, so I killed him. In the battle I was hurt, after I had killed him I fell, to hurt to control the change anymore I changed on top of her where I fell. That night she ran away from me and slept with a vampire. We had all started to repair things when he made her into some sort of Succubi, now she sleeps with anything that will move.” I could hear the disgust in his voice and knew I had to pull him back to the present.

“How did you hurt her Richard?” I asked gently.

He turned his face and wouldn’t look at me, “Every now and then she wants to be … Dominated, to give up her control. And I’m always willing to do that for her, to hurt her.”

I finally understood, he hadn’t hurt anyone, not really but he believed he did. “Richard, Look at me,” I demanded. I waited till his brown eyes met mine, “Did you dominate Anita tonight Richard?” I waited to see him nod his head and took a deep breath, I could already feel my cheeks heating up even before I asked my next question, “Did Anita orgasm from your session tonight?”

“Why does that matter? I hurt her, there is no way I didn’t and I enjoyed it.”

“Richard, did you really enjoy hurting her or did you enjoy that you could give her the pleasure she wanted?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hit me.” I looked up into his eyes, trusting that I wasn’t wrong. Trusting that even though I had just told a werewolf to hit me he wouldn’t do it because if he did, I would be screwed. I knew that if he hit me just right he could snap my neck, but still, I trusted him because I knew in my gut he wasn’t a bad person.

He jerked back from me as if I had been the one to hit him, “What? No.”

“If you honestly enjoy hurting someone then hit me.”

“I won’t hit you, Jewel.”

“I know you won’t Richard because I know that it wasn’t hitting Anita that you enjoyed. You enjoyed that you gave her pleasure, that you were able to give her what she needed. You didn’t hurt her Richard, you pleasured her, and you should enjoy that.”

“You mean I enjoyed it not because I hit her but because she enjoyed that I hit her.”

I nodded, “exactly, you are not a bad person Richard. I could never believe you to be a bad person.”

“What did I ever do before I started talking to you?”

“You hated yourself, something that is extremely unhealthy.” I smiled at him. “Now, what musical do you want to watch tonight?”

“What have you picked up?” I could feel that the mood was different, not completely gone but slightly healed.

 

 

I walked back onto store floor and felt my heart stop. I could see the overly familiar tuft of shaggy black hair. As he turned, the profile confirmed that Mitch had found his way into my store. I could feel a fine tremble begin to spread across my body and my heart was pounding in my chest. I took two steps back till I was hiding in the hallway again and reached up to the small headset we all wore and called the manager over to the office. Leaning against the wall I tried to take deeper breaths so I wouldn’t hyperventilate.

“Are you ok?” Max asked as soon as he stepped into the hallway.

“I have to go home, I can’t be here.” I knew I didn’t make sense but I couldn’t help it.

“What’s wrong Jewel,” he asked opening the office and letting me sit down.

I pointed to Mitch on the security camera, “I have a restraining order against him, he put me in the hospital.”

“Do you want to just stay back here until he leaves?”

“He knows my car, he will wait for me outside I have to leave before he does.”

“Ok,” Max grabbed his headset and instructed one of the other workers to go talk to Mitch, “go to the breakroom and get your stuff, I’ll walk you out.” I nodded much too fast but went into the break room and grabbed my coat and purse. I pulled my coat on and zipped it up pulling the hood over my face. I sent Richard an SOS text before sliding my purse across my body. I slid my hand into the bag and pulled out the pepper spray I had and stuck it in my pocket with my hand still on it. Max walked me along the back of the store and unlocked the back door to let me out. A small alarm went off like it always did when someone opened the door but I didn’t care. I ran to my car and got in locking the doors. I watched the store's door in my rearview mirror until I was around the corner. My hands shook the entire drive home and as soon as I was inside I locked the door, huddling on the couch.

I jumped when there was a knock on the door, “Jewel, it's Richard.” I scrambled from the couch and ran over to open the door. Soon as he was inside I closed and locked the door again. As soon as the lock clicked into place I couldn’t help myself, I fell into Richard’s arms sobbing, “Hey it’s ok, whatever is wrong it will be ok.” He said rubbing my back. I let him walk me to the couch and even pulled back enough for him to go make us both a cup of hot cocoa, I was out of tea.

“Thank you.” My voice was still as shaky as my hands when I tried to take the cup, Richard ended up setting it on my coffee table.

“What happened Jewel?”

I took a deep breath and pulled my knees to my chest. “Three years ago I spent winter break in the hospital, two broken ribs, a fractured jaw, dislocated shoulder, ten stitches in my scalp, a broken arm, and sprained wrist. One of the ribs had nearly punctured my lung.” I pulled the blanket off the back of the couch, I knew it wouldn’t help with the type of cold I was but it was better than nothing, “my boyfriend at the time was abusive. We had been together for three years, and he had me fully believing that everything was my fault. He failed his midterm and knew that his parents wouldn’t pay for another semester of schooling. He told me it was because of me he failed, that I had ruined everything because he always had to keep an eye on me so he never had time to study. He threw me through the coffee table, the impact knocked me out. When I woke up he was kicking me over and over and over again. I screamed and luckily one of the neighbors here heard and called the cops. He was dragging me into the kitchen when they got here, he said that since I couldn’t behave myself he was going to remove his distraction, he was going to kill me. I don’t know how he is out already but he showed up at my work today. I haven’t seen him since that night in my apartment. My parents filed for the restraining order while I was still in the medically induced coma. When I woke up they called a few detectives in to take my statement and that was the last piece of evidence they were waiting for to go to trial. I dropped out for the rest of the year and spent the rest of the school year and all summer in therapy four times a week, it’s what made me change my mind on what I wanted to be, I couldn’t handle seeing people who had been in my situation over and over. I spent another two years in therapy once a week. I never thought I would see him again.” I was crying again by the time I had finished.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Richard said, pulling me into his arms again.

“I know that now, but it took a lot of therapy to get to that point and seeing him again threw me, he isn’t supposed to come anywhere near me.”

“Maybe it was an accident?”

“It was no accident I have worked there since I moved up here and he knows what my car looks like.”

“If you see him again you call the cops ok?” he said tilting my head up.

“I should have done that today, but I panicked.”

“It’s ok, you got out and you got safe.”

“Thank you for coming over Richard.”

“No problem.” He smiled gently, “How about we pop in one of those supernatural movies you like so much.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I smiled, I suddenly felt a whole lot safer with a werewolf in my apartment with me.


	4. Study Buddies

Richard was waiting for me when I got to my apartment. It was our third study-a-thon and he was still determined to get me an A on my Final tomorrow.

“I got food and bribes.” I grinned holding up both the Chinese food and the bag from the liquor store to his gaze.

“I still don’t understand how you think drinking while studying will help.” He said taking the two bags from me.

“It makes it fun.” I answered unlocking my door.

“Are you saying studying with me isn’t fun?”

“Not when you’re in teaching mode” I grinned, “Besides I figure it’s time to test that werewolf alcohol tolerance.”

 

We were about Hours into our studying, I was sprawled across my couch, feet on Richards Lap. I was about half way done with my second bottle of peppermint schnapps and he had just finished his third bottle of Everclear.

“[Which is not a type of peripheral nervous system neuroglia?](http://www.helpteaching.com/questions/748113/which-is-not-a-type-of-peripheral-nervous-system-neuroglia)” Richard asked, “Scwann Cells, Microglia, or Satellite Cells?”

“I know this one,” I grinned up at him “its Satellite cells!”

“Drink.” He grinned, “Microglia.”

“Damn.” I grumbled and grabbed the bottle from the floor, we had long since given up on the shot glasses. “I swear you did not go over this stuff in class.”

“Did too.”

“I think you are asking me questions that you didn’t teach to get me drunk.” I struggled to sit up.

“Get you drunk, I’ve had more than you have.”

“Let me see that book.” I lunged for it in my severely altered state. Richard moved the book over his head and out of my reach. I ended up straddling him, trying to grab the book from his hands, both of us laughing. As he once again moved the book out of my reach I lost my balance and fell against his chest, a hand on each shoulder. Our faces weren’t even an inch apart as we stared into each other’s eyes. Suddenly I had my lips pressed to his, fingers tangled in his hair. Distantly I heard the book fall to the floor as his hands came back to grip my waist, pulling flush against him. He slid his hands up and under my shirt, fingers leaving a burning trail up my skin. I moaned into his mouth at the feeling and felt his tongue slide across mine. I could feel him pulling my shirt up and broke from the kiss just long enough for him to pull it over my head.

As his hands continued to gently need my back I pulled his shirt from where he still had it tucked into his pants. My fingers tried to undo the buttons of his shirt but my alcohol addled brain wasn’t up for the job. His hands left my back and he grabbed his shirt on either side giving it a pull, buttons flew everywhere but I was able to push the shirt off of him. We broke the kiss again so I could pull his under shirt off, and this time instead of returning to the kiss his mouth moved lower, dibbling and sucking at my neck. I whined, feeling him grow hard under me. Suddenly I was in the air, Richard had stood and lifted me with him, hands gripped around my thighs.

“Bedroom?” he asked as his mouth moved lover to lick and kiss at the tops of my breasts.

“End of the hall.” I gasped. Half way there he pushed me up against the wall, our mouths fused together again. I wrapped my legs around his waist and his hands left my thighs running up my back to unhook my bra. When his hands moved to cup my breasts I gasped, back arching. I ground down against him and could hear the hitch in his breath. He moved his hands from my chest back to my legs and we continued to the bedroom.

When we got into my room He dropped me into the bed and immediately dropped over me mouth fastening over one breast. I gasped fingers tightening back into his hair. I could feel the scrape of his teeth against my flesh and whined, wiggling under him. Soon he moved to the other breast and I felt like I was going to pass out from the feeling. I grabbed a hand full of hair and pulled his face up.

“Need you now.” I gasped.

“As you wish” he grinned. I pulled my pants off throwing them across the room. When he pulled his off I couldn’t stop the noises that slipped from his throat. He was huge. I hooked my feet around his legs and pulled him back onto the bed. He fell over me, an arm on either side of my head. He slowly pushed into me and the moan that slipped form my lips would have embarrassed if not for the alcohol. I wrapped my legs up and around his waist, arms coming up to grip at his shoulders. I bucked up to meet his next thrust and soon he was pounding into me, me bucking into each thrust. I could feel the pleasure building and my eyes start to roll back.

“Look at me.” he growled leaning down to nip at my neck. As soon as our eyes met again that was it. I screamed, clenching around him, fingers digging into his back. I felt him thrust just an edge faster, before he followed me over the edge, filling me. He rolled over and I snuggled back into him, drifting off to sleep completely exhausted.

 

I snuggled back into the warm body behind me. I froze, eyes popping open. I was held against a hard chest, head pillowed on a muscular arm, its twin thrown over my waist. I had one leg thrown back over one of theirs and I could tell neither of us had a stitch of clothing on. I turned and found myself face to face with Richard. I had slept with my professor the night before the final. I tried to slide out of bed only to have his arms tighten around me.

“Richard, wake up.” I hissed.

“What?” his already deep voice was even deeper with sleep.

“Richard open your eyes.”

“What happened last night,” he groaned throwing the arm that was over my waist up and over his face.

“Wait, are you hung over?” I asked sitting up and looking at him. He glared up at me for just a fraction of a second before his eyes went wide in realization.

“Did we….?” He left the question trail off.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we did.” I nodded.

“That’s a bad thing isn’t it?” He asked, sitting up blanket pooling around his waist.

I had to think about it, was it a bad thing? “You are still my teacher for another 9 hours.”

“If I wasn’t your teacher?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” I looked away and then looked back, “but for the rest of the day you are.”

“I should go.” He said rolling out of bed.

“Richard.”

“No Jewel you’re right, I’m your teacher and we shouldn’t have done this.” He shook his head as he pulled his jeans on from the night before.

“I guess I’ll see you in class.” I said as I watched him walk out of the bedroom. I flopped back onto my bed and groaned. What the hell had I done?

 

I laid there for about an hour trying to wrap my head around what had happened. Glancing at the clock I decided it was time to get out of bed. I shuffled through the apartment to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror and could see a dark bruise at the junction of my neck and shoulder, where Richard had nipped at me the night before. I had similar marks all over my chest. I slid under the hot spray of the shower and suddenly couldn’t stop the tears from falling anymore. What had I done? It wasn't until I had started cleaning myself that I realized we hadn't used any type of protection. Pulling myself together I got out of the shower I headed to my room to get ready.

I dressed in a pair of dark skinny jeans and my favorite red tank top. The shirt left most of the marks from last night visible. I grabbed my leather jacket and a black scarf, and all the marks were covered. I pulled on a pair of boots and was ready to go. I slipped my wallet and phone into the jacket pocket, grabbed my backpack and left, locking the door behind me. I used the walk to the pharmacy to call and make an appointment with my doctor. Time to go back on birth control.

When I got to the counter with the plan B box and condoms I looked the middle aged cashier in the eye and dared her to comment. I was not ashamed of what happened the night before between Richard and me, and I was not going to let some prude make me feel different. I tucked both into my backpack and headed toward campus. Once there I grabbed lunch from one of the stands and dropped into an open seat. Suddenly my scarf was pulled off and Sandy dropped into the seat across from me. She looked at the box I had pulled from my bag and raised an eye brow.

“Who?” She asked.

“I can’t.” I hated keeping this from her, especially with how mixed up I felt.

“Is this why you’ve been ditching out most Saturday nights?”

“Yes.”

“Do I get to meet him?”

“You already have.” I said without thinking, regretting it immediately as her eyes narrowed on me.

“Who?” She looked at me, “Justin? No Erik is more your type.”

“It’s not anyone from our study group. Give me through winter break. If I can tell you, I will.”

“Fine.” She tossed my scarf back at me. I slipped it back around my neck, looking up I saw Richard talking with another professor as they walked across campus.

“Here.” I said pushing my uneaten lunch over to Sandy.

“Is everything ok?”

“I don’t know.” I sighed if I t=didn’t talk to someone I was going to go crazy. “Let’s call him Stan. Stan decided to help me study for a final, I decided to introduce him to the shot for shot study game. We got a little drunker then we should, we slept together. If anyone found out Stan would be in a lot of trouble, he could lose everything. He asked if us sleeping together was a bad thing, I pointed out the issue. He asked if that wasn’t the case if it would be a bad thing, I said but it is. He left.”

“Ok now tell me, if the issue, whatever it is, wasn’t a problem what would you have done?”

“Honestly I have no clue. We have been having such a good time I don’t want to ruin it.” I looked at her, I was being honest I loved the Saturday nights me and Richard had been spending together.

“What have you two been doing?”

“Watching movies, eating take-out, working on our personal problems,” I shrugged, “went caving a few weeks ago. This week we studied.”

“I love you woman but somedays I swear you are stupid.” She shook her head at me.  “You two are already dating. So unless he is married or is one your professors you ….” She stopped midsentence and looked at me eyes going wide, “that’s it isn’t it? You screwed one of your professors.”

I looked around making sure no one had heard, “will you keep it down.” I hissed glaring at her.

“Do you have any of their classes next semester?”

“No.”

“Okay then once you take your final in their class you go get them and fix it. Keep things Low Queue until you graduate.” She shrugged.

“If they won’t go for it?”

“Then you slap them and don’t take no for an answer.”

“OK.” I smiled at her.

“Now, ready for Mythology?” she asked standing up.

“Let’s go.”


	5. Holiday Blues

When I got to Biology that afternoon Richard wasn’t there, but the other professor he had been talking to was. I pulled out my phone and sent him a quick text, “we need to talk. Last night was NOT a mistake. Just bad timing by a week.” I hit send.  
“Hello class my name is Dr. Louis Fane. I’ll be giving you your final since Professor Zeeman is unable to be here today.”  
“Is he ok?” A blond wearing a pair of painted on yoga pants and hot pink crop top asked. I rolled my eyes, could she be any more obvious? Like Richard would ever fall for someone so skanky.  
“He’s fine, just had a personal matter come up.” Dr. Fane answered. “Now if you can all clear everything away Ms. Conrad will distribute your test. I couldn’t help but smile as I easily answered almost every question on the test with ease. When I was finished I brought the test up and set it on Richards desk.  
“Dr. Fane,” I waited till he looked up at me, “Is Professor Zeeman in his office?”  
“No, he isn’t on campus today.” He answered, eyes not meeting mine.  
“ok thanks.” I walked out of the class and checked my phone. There was still no reply from Richard. I pulled up his phone number and called him. It rang twice before going to voicemail, he had ignored my call. I growled in frustration, “Will you answer the phone? We need to talk. Tomorrow is my last day of classes. I’m going home Friday and I want to see you before that. Please call me back.” I hung up , slipped my phone back into my pocket and headed toward his office. I was a little disappointed to find the door locked and the lights off but not surprised. Feeling a little down I headed home.   
There was no one waiting for me as I walked in and I finally gave up hope of seeing Richard that night. I dropped my bag onto the chair and headed to my bedroom. I changed out of the jeans from today and replaced them with a pear of back sweats before heading back out. I grabbed a Pint of Ben & Jerry’s from the freezer and a spoon from the dish drainer before I dropped onto the couch. The musical me and Richard had watched last weekend was still in the DVD player. I hit play and pulled my blanket down around me before opening the Ice cream and digging in.

I woke up the next morning still on the couch, title menu playing on repeat. I had to finals today and then had to pack to head home for the holidays. I swapped out the tank top, added a fuzzy sweater and matching fuzzy boots. I pulled my hair back into a pony tail and headed out for the day.  
I stopped my Richards office again but the door was still locked. After the first class I met up with Sandy for lunch and fought the urge to aske if she knew where Richard was, after all she was his TA. I made one last pass past his office after my last final before heading home. I sent Richard another text begging him to talk to me before I left the next morning. I packed my suitcase, checking my phone every few minutes. After I had finished packing I curled up on the couch and fell asleep, wanting to be able to hear if anyone knocked.

We hadn’t even all been together for two hours and already I wanted to scream. All I had heard in the three weeks I had been home was about all of Melody’s accomplishments, about her amazingly sweet and respectful boyfriend. And now not only was I hearing all this again but had been asked six different times if I was still single, four different time why I wasn’t married yet and had two distant aunt hint at me being a lesbian and that it would be ok with them.  
I shoved myself into the one chair in the corner of the room and pulled my phone out. “SANDY SAVE ME!”   
“I take it teacher man hasn’t answered you yet?”  
I thought back to Richard. He was probably running around out in the snow chasing his nephews. “I’m 90 percent sure he’s avoiding me.” I said before opening a message to Richard. I hadn’t heard from him since that morning but if nothing else we were friends, weren’t we? I sent him just a simple “Merry Christmas “ there was no emoticons no nothing, just the two words. I finally excused myself and bundled up to go for a walk. I found myself at the park I used to go to when I was in high school and sat on one of the swings after sweeping the snow off it. I stayed out till well past midnight, till I knew when I went home it would be empty.

New years I met up with a few friends from High School. We all gathered at the single local club that we used to sneak into, this time we were legal. At the end of the night, while we all counted down to the New Year I was drunk enough to grab one of the guys for a midnight kiss, but it was wrong. His hair was cut short to his head, and his lips were a little on the thin side. He was only an inch taller than me and I didn’t even need to tilt my head up to kiss him. it was only a brief press of lips before I pushed him away stumbling to the cab the bartender had called from me. I crawled into bed and sent Richard another text, wishing him a happy New Year, nothing was spelled right.

 

I dropped my suitcase Just inside the door glad to be home. Six weeks with my family was about five weeks to many. It had been over a month, I still hadn’t heard from Richard and I was tired of being ignored. I would check his office once more once classes started and then I was going to be hunting down a certain Dr. Fane and demanding answers.   
I decided that instead of unpacking to vedge out on the couch and see what Christmas specials I had recorded over the last month. I was half way through the second one when there was a pounding on my door.   
“Coming.” I hollered pausing the TV and rolling off the couch. Sandy pushed her way into the apartment as soon as the door was cracked open.  
“You slept with Richard Zeeman.” She said.  
I closed the door and stared at her for a minute, “How…”  
“How did I know?” She asked hands on her hips, “I got an email from him Notifying me that he had transferred class rooms and offices.”  
“He did what?” I was suddenly pissed off again.  
“He changed rooms.”  
I turned and walked toward the bedroom, knowing Sandy would follow me, “Do you know if he is in today?”  
“I would think so, I got the email like ten minutes ago and came right over. What are you going to do?”  
“I think it’s time me and Mr. Zeeman had a bit of a talk.” I said. I started digging through my suit case.  
“Is there any chance I can bring popcorn and watch?”  
I looked over my shoulder at her raising an eye brow, “Really?”  
“I’m just saying.” She shrugged, “Can you just not tell him it was me who told you, I kinda need this job.”  
“I won’t say a word.” I grabbed my green and silver pleated skirt and changed into it.  
“You are going to make him pay aren’t you?” Sandy asked, voice filled with humor.  
“Damn right, He has been ignoring me all break and I am done being ignored.”  
“You know maybe I don’t want to see this.” She chuckled.  
“Good now help me.”


	6. You have to Be Quiet

By the time I left the house I was dressed in the green and silver skirt, matching zip up corset like top, a black button up sweater and my only pair of heels. Sandy had pulled my hair back so it looked like a single waterfall of curls as it fell down my back and I had lined my eyes in emerald green and added silver and black eye shadow and lips were a bright ruby red. I had slipped one of the condoms I had bought into the pocket of the skirt, just in case, and I was on my way to Richards new office.  
I could see the light on inside and didn’t bother to knock before walking in. He was behind the desk, unloading a box of books onto a book shelf. His hair was pulled back into a tight pony like he always did when he was working. He had on a dark red sweater and a pair of khaki pants. As soon as I stepped into the room I saw his back stiffen just slightly, good he knew I was here.  
“Ready to talk?” I asked closing the door behind me and leaning on it.  
“Jewel what are you doing here?” He asked still not turning to look at me.  
“Well you wouldn’t return my calls or my texts, then I find out that you have gone to great lengths to avoid me and you know I kinda felt a little hurt.” I let the warm anger fill my voice. I had been depressed for so long than it had evolved into anger that he had ignored me.   
“You don’t understand.” He said voice hard.  
“Then show me.” I demanded.   
“I cant.” He finally turned to look at me. He stopped with his mouth open like he was going to say something else. He looked at me eyes moving up and down.  
“Oh look I finally got your attention.” I walked toward him.  
“What are you wearing?” His voice was suddenly deeper.  
“I bought it over Christmas, you like?” I cocked a hip onto his desk.  
“You shouldn’t be here.” I watched as his pupils grew wider.  
“Why not.”  
“What if someone saw you come in.” He still wasn’t looking me in the eye, instead his gaze kept dancing up and down the outfit I was wear.  
“Why does it matter? You aren’t my teacher anymore.” I said the last part softly stepping towards him, bodies so close he had no choice but to look into my eyes. “I miss you Richard, I miss the Chinese take out at my apartment, I miss the silly old musicals. I miss you.”  
“You don’t understand what I am.” His hands hovered over my hips, like he wanted to touch me but was afraid to.  
I shook my head, “What don’t I know Richard? Tell me, show me, make me understand why this is so wrong?”  
“Are you really sure you want to know?” He asked, eyes searing mine.  
“Yesss.” The word ended in a gasp, the room had suddenly filled with …. Something. It almost felt like the air had become electrically charged. I put my hands on Richards chest to steady myself and realized that what filled the air was his power, whatever it was that made him a werewolf surrounded him like a cloud. I looked up into his eyes and could see the doubt. I took a deep steadying breath, “You’ve been holding back.” My voice came out breathy and I could tell my pulse had sped up.  
“You aren’t scared?” He asked, hands finally coming to rest on my hips.  
“I have never been scared of you Richard.” I slid my hands up his chest to cup his face, “When are you going to realize I don’t care what you are because I know who you are?”  
“I don’t deserve you.”  
“no you don’t but you are stuck with me.” I pulled his hair free so I could run my fingers through it. I pulled him down and fastened our lips together. I moaned into his mouth as he pulled me against him, bodies flush. I felt his arms flex a moment just before he lifted me up, he set me on his desk and I opened my legs so he could step between them. Every touch seemed to be magnified with his power surrounding me. he moved his mouth down, lips and nipping at my jaw. A loud moan slipped from my mouth as I wrapped my legs around his waist.  
“you have to be quiet or we’ll get caught.” He whispered into my ear even as he jerked me against him, pushing his growing hardness against me. I bit my lip to try to keep the noises in feeling him. He grinned at me as he dropped down to his knees in front of me.   
“You aren’t playing fair.” I whispered.  
He kissed my thigh, nipping the skin, “Say,” another nipping kiss, “the” and another, “word. And. I’ll. Stop.” Each word was accompanied by a nipping kiss each one farther and farther up my thigh till his breath was hot over the silk of my panties.   
“Don’t you dare.” I gasped, bringing my hand to my mouth as he fastened his mouth over my core sucking and licking against my panties. “Richard.” I hissed.  
“Patients.” He chuckled, hands sliding up my legs leaving a burning trail across my skin.   
I grabbed a hand full of his hair and jerked his head up, “I have been patient the last month and a half, I have no patience left.” He hooked his fingers into my panties and dragged them down my legs.   
“Then a few more moments wont kill you.” He grinned. I felt his tongue run a single strip up me before he flicked over my clit twice in quick movements. I fell back onto his desk and had to clamp my mouth shut to stay quiet even as I gripped the edge of his desk.   
“Richard.” His name came out a quiet plea as he slid a finger into me and then another, mouth sucking and nipping my clit. I could feel my body tightening, small noises stuck in my throat. Richard slid a third finger into me and I fell over the edge. Both hands coming up to silence my screams as I bucked up off his desk, body twisting. I came down slowly, body still rippling with pleasure. Richard pulled me back to a sitting position, arms around my waist. He kissed me and I could taste myself on his tongue.  
“Was it worth the wait?” he teased pulling back, smiling gently down at me.  
“Not yet but it will be.” I grinned fingers sliding to his belt. His hands came to rest on mine stopping me.  
“While I would like to continue this, we cant.” He said leaning in to kiss me again.  
“and why not?” I said pulling back before his lips touched mine.  
“We got carried away last time, we didn’t use any protection and I don’t have anything here.” I grinned at him and slid my hand into the pocket of the skirt. I pulled the condom out and held it in two fingers, he laughed leaning down to kiss me again. He set the condom down on the corner of the desk and slowly unbuttoned my sweater pushing it off my shoulders. At the same time I was doing the same to his shirt. Pulling away when I had his under shirt pulled from his pants. I pushed him back from the desk as I pulled his belt free before slipping to my knees in front of him.   
“my turn.” I grinned up at him as I pulled him free from his slacks, “and remember be quiet.” I licked the around the head, lips stretched wide over his impressive girth, before sliding my mouth down his length. I could feel his fingers tangle in my hair and hummed lightly. I heard him try to bite back a groan and pressed my tongue along the bottom of his length, his hips jerked forward, forcing him farther into my mouth. Suddenly he pulled out from my mouth and onto my feet. He spun me around so I was facing away from him, his hands over mine.  
“you sure this is what you want?” he asked, mouth next to my ear. I nodded my head pressing back against him. he stepped back leaving me against the desk. I could hear him rip open the condom and then he was pushing my skirt up, hands on my hips. He slowly pushed into me, a whimper pushing from my throat as I stretched around him, he was bigger than anyone else I had ever been with. “You have no idea how often I’ve thought of this.” His voice was rough as he pumped into me.   
“Richard, please.” I begged trying to push back to meet him thrusts.  
He snapped his hips against mine, forcing a gasp from my throat, “tell me what you want Jewel, beg for it.” He kissed at my neck, sucking on the junction of neck and shoulder.  
I reached back and grabbed a hand full of hair, turning my head to kiss him, “Fuck me harder.” I said into his mouth. “fuck me faster.” I said. And he did. Soon he was pushing into me over and over faster and harder than I had ever felt before and as I came he slid a hand over my mouth to keep the screams inside. As I tightened around him I felt his pace stutter and new he was following me over the edge. He bit out my name before sinking his teeth into my shoulder body spasming.   
We fell back onto the floor, Richard slowly pulling from me. I felt him take the condom off and toss it in the trash before tucking himself away and pulling me against him. I tucked my face into his neck, not realizing how much I had missed his scent. We stayed like that for several minutes, curled around each other.  
“I’m sorry I was an ass.” He said lifting my face so I was looking up at him.  
“You maybe super strong but if you ever pull that shit again I will kick your ass.” I warned before kissing him.  
“Sounds good.” He smiled, “What do you say you head back to your place, I’ll go grab Chinese and be there as soon as its done?”  
“we’re watching Christmas movies tonight.” I told him as he helped me to my feet.   
“Whatever you say.” He gave me another light kiss, just a brief brush of lips this time.   
“Can we agree that besides this time we keep this off campus?” I asked, “at least until I graduate at the end of the year?”  
“I think we can handle that.”  
“Good I’ll see you in a about an hour.”

When I got home I called Sandy and told her a PG version of what had happened. I changed into back into my yoga pants and tank top and pulled my hair into a pony tail. I tried to settle onto the couch and finish the movie Sandy had interrupted but I couldn’t settle down. I felt wired, couldn’t sit still to save my soul. I ended up spending the time waiting for Richard putting away the clothes that had littered y room from digging through my suitcase. I had just finished tucking the suit case into the bottom of my closet when there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find a grinning Richard on the other side holding a bag of food. I stepped back to let him walk in and closed the door. He set the bag down before pulling me in and kissing me. when we pulled apart my breathing was just a little faster.  
“I think I could get used to this.” I said smiling.  
“me too.” He grinned. Without another word, we moved to the kitchen and started pulling plates down for dinner. We ate on the couch as usual and I picked a new movie for us to watch. By the second movie we had finished eating and I was curled up against Richards side, his arm over my shoulder. I could feel sleep pulling at me by the end of the second movie and a yawn slipped from my lips. “I should go home.” He said softly looking down at me.  
“yeah I guess you’re right.” I yawned. I stood from the couch and pulled him up to his feet. He helped me to move the dishes to the kitchen sink. I followed him to the door where we kissed good night and he left. I locked the door and shut everything down before crawling into my bed and sliping off to sleep, a smile on my face.


	7. Pains of the Past

I was sitting on Richards lap, fingers tangled in his hair, when the door to his office opened. “Yeah mom I’ll tell him,” the voice was eerily similar to Richards. “OH MY GODI I did not need to see that. Mom he’s fine, more than fine I’d say.”   
Richard looked at me, irritation quickly replacing the lust that had filled them, “My brother.” He whispered.  
“Yeah mom, I’ll put him on.”  
“Daniel no.” Richard growled even as Daniel tossed the phone at him. He put it up to his ear, glaring at Daniel, “Hi mom – what- mom-“ I slid off his lap to give him a little privacy.  
“So you’re the reason brig brother has been skipping Sunday Brunch.” Daniel grinned.  
“Names Jewel and you are exactly how Richard described you.”  
“Funny he’s been avoiding us since Christmas. Figured I would stop in for lunch to check on him.”  
“Next time call.” Richard growled from behind me, obviously having ended the call with his mom.  
“Can the big bad wolf routine Richard.” I rolled my eyes.  
“She knows?” Daniel asked, I could hear the surprise in his voice.  
“I know, Don’t tell me he tried to hide it from you guys.” I looked at Richard who had the decency to look ashamed.  
“For ten years he hid it.” Daniel smirked.  
“You are a moron.”  
“I don’t think I want you two around each other.” Richard pouted.  
“So what did mom say?” Daniel said.  
“You know what mom said.”  
“Behave.” I grinned, “I’m going to head home, you coming over tonight?”  
“yeah you want me to grab dinner?”  
“I’ll cook, you just wanna bring a bottle of wine?”  
“What are you making?”  
I thought about what I had at the house, “Lasagna sound good?”  
“Perfect.” He grinned leaning down to give me a short kiss good bye.  
“you two are disgusting.” Daniel interrupted.  
“Nice meeting you Daniel” I smiled as I I passed him.  
“You too Jewel.”

I had finished assembling the lasagna and had it waiting to put in the oven. Richard’s last class had started just a bit ago and I knew he would be at least another hour, hour and a half. I had spread out on the living room floor when I heard the door open. I smiled, I loved that Richard didn’t knock anymore. “hey babe, didn’t expect you yet, can you put the lasagna in the oven since you’re early?” I called not looking up from my computer. I could hear him moving toward me and frowned. He always said something when he first came in. I rolled over but I wasn’t looking up at Richard but instead found myself looking into Mitch’s laughing blue eyes.  
“Baby I’m home.” He smirked. I scrambled to my feet, “what? Not who you were expecting?”  
“Get out.” I hated that my voice shook. I glanced at the clock and saw there was still a half hour before Richards class got out.   
“haven't you missed me?” He said stalking closer, I slowly backed away until my back hit the wall.  
“I told you I never wanted to see you again.”   
“You have always been so rude and disrespectful.” I watched his eyes go cold and started to shake.  
“You put me in the hospital.” I wanted to scream, I wanted Richard to have ended his class early and walk through the door.  
“It wouldn’t have come to that if you would just learn a little respect.” He said with gritted teeth.  
“I have a restraining order against you.” I moved my hands to my pockets but couldn’t feel my phone.   
“You were upset, we do things we don’t mean when we are upset.”  
“You beat me!” I screamed, losing my temper. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, I knew it would only make things worse but it had taken almost two years for me to reinforce to myself that I had never been at fault for his actions.  
He slapped me, the force knocking me to the ground. His hand tangled in my hair jerking me up, “You will learn respect.” He growled into my ear before dropping me back onto the floor. I pushed myself off the ground only to have him drive his knee into my stomach, knocking the air out of me with a whoosh. I scrambled away from him only to have him kick me in the hip sending me stumbling into the side table causing it to tip over. I tried to pull myself across the paper littered floor when he grabbed my hair again and lifted my head up before slamming my face into the ground, my vision fading.

I woke up on the floor of my bedroom, body aching as the bruises formed, arms tied behind my back. “Look who finally decided to wake up, I was starting to think I had actually hurt you.” Mitch said as he leaning against the door frame, how long had I been unconscious? I looked around the room and could tell he had been going through the dresser and closet. There was a pile of clothes at his feet, they looked like Richard’s, “Whose are these?” he said kicking them.  
“You’ll be lucky if you don’t find out, just leave.” Even though my voice was steady I could feel myself starting to shake.  
“Did you fuck him in this bed?” he asked striding over to me.  
Without thinking I glared up at him, “and it was the best sex I’ve ever had.” I cried out as he lifted me by my hair, several pieces pulling free by the roots. He dragged me to the foot of the bed and pushed me down onto it, bent over at the waist.  
“Well we’ll just have to change that won’t we.” He snarled pressing himself against me. I could feel him hard and ready through our clothes and wanted to be sick. He slid his hand under me and pulled open the button and zipper of my jeans. He yanked them down my legs with one hand, the other pressed between my shoulder blades, holding me down on the bed. My panties followed next and I began to struggle, useless with my arms and now legs held together. I could hear him fumbling with his belt when my front door opened.  
“HELP!” I screamed, the end cutting off as Mitch’s fist slammed into my face. Suddenly he was pulled off of me and I could hear him slam into the wall. I felt someone else’s fingers at my wrist, pulling off what ever had been wrapped around them. As quickly as I felt them there they were gone and I slipped to the floor. I struggled to pull my pants back on and turned to find Richard holding Mitch against the wall by his throat, his face slowly going purple. “Richard stop.” I struggled to my feet staggering toward them.  
“He hurt you.” His voice was a deep.  
“But you’re here now, you won’t let him hurt me anymore.” I put my hand on his arm and could feel the power vibrating just under his skin, “just let him go Richard.”  
“I should kill him for touching you.”  
“Then I’ll lose you Richard.” He looked at me, his brown eyes starting to lighten, “Let him go, don’t lose everything for me.” I reached up and touched his face, “Please.” He stepped back and let Mitch fall to the ground.  
“Get out.” He growled at him and finally Mitch listened, scrambling to his feet and out of the room. “Are you ok?” he asked turning to me.  
“I will be,” I said sliding my arms around his waist, “Now that you’re here.”  
“We need to call the cops.” He said holing me too him. I nodded my head not ready to pull back yet.

I sat huddled next to Richard on the couch and gave my statement to the cops. I had been answering questions for the last hour and they had photographed the damage to the apartment. I was getting a little irritated.  
“Can I talk to you in the bedroom Ms. Anderson?” The female detective asked.  
“Sure.” I lead her into the bedroom, trying to ignore the dents in the plaster where Richard had thrown Mitch.  
“I need to ask you a few questions without Mr. Zeeman around.” She said her voice gentle.  
“Like what?” I felt cold, my skin itched where I could feel Mitch’s hands on me. I wrapped my arms around myself, “Anything you need to ask you could have asked in front of him.”  
“Was Mr. Zeeman your attacker?”  
“What?” I couldn’t process the question at first. “No, I told you and your partner, he saved me. He was coming over for dinner, I heard the door open and screamed. He rushed in here, pulled Mitchel Stewart off me and untied my hands.”  
“We understand that some people feel the need to protect those close to them, but we cant help you if you don’t tell us the truth.”  
I could feel a flush sliding up my neck as I glared at the officer, I lowered my voice to keep myself from yelling, instead biting each word through clenched teeth, “Richard Zeeman has never hurt me. Mitchel Stewart, my ex-boyfriend whom I have a restraining order against broke into my apartment, beat me and tried to rape me.” with that I turned and walked out of the room. I met Richards eyes from across the room and could see the concern in them. I knew he had heard every word and suddenly just wanted all of them gone. “Please make them leave now.” I whispered as I made my way back to him, knowing he would hear me. I sat back on the couch and curled into his side, I just wanted the day to be done.  
“Unless you have anymore questions I think we can end things.” Richard said, sliding his arm over my shoulder protectively, “We called you for help and have answered all of your questions. Jewel needs to rest and stop reliving what she was put through.”  
The two officers looked at each other. “If we have any other questions we will call you Ms. Anderson.” The male detective said as he stood up. I watched as they both walked out the door.  
“Are you ok?” Richard asked looking down at me. I looked around my apartment and wanted to cry. The living room was completely destroyed and I knew my room wasn’t in much better shape. “Do you want to come stay at my house until your land lord can have someone fix the walls?” he asked gently.  
“Can I?” my voice had started to sound weak again and I hated it.  
“Go ahead and pack a bag, I’ll pack up dinner.” He smiled.  
“I don’t think I can drive.”  
“Don’t worry about it.”

An hour later I was sitting on Richard’s couch knees drawn up to my chest. This was my first time in Richard’s house and honestly I couldn’t bring myself to actually see what it looked like. I could feel my cheek swelling and I had a few bruised ribs. I stared blankly at the opposite wall, I had thought this part of my life was over. I thought he would never touch me again. I could still feel his hands on me and wanted to scream. I stood up and could see Richard working in his kitchen on unpacking the dinner I had started. I made my way to the bathroom and started the shower. I pulled off my clothes and stepped in, not looking in the mirror. I huddled under the spray and just stood there. I wanted to scrub myself clean but remembered all the articles I had studied in my first year of psych of women who had scrubbed themselves raw after a rape. So instead I stood under the steaming water. I heard the door to the bathroom open and couldn’t help but stiffen.   
“Jewel are you ok?” Richards voice was calm and gentle, the voice you would use with a scared animal.  
“no.” my voice was small and weak sounding.  
“Can I come in?” his voice was hesitant like he wasn’t sure how I would react.  
“Please.” I wasn’t scared of Richard, I wanted him to hold me, I wanted him to make me believe everything would be ok again. I could hear him sliding out of his clothes, folding them neatly on the toilet before opening the curtain and stepping in. As soon as he was fully in I fell against him. the wall that had been holding everything in collapsed and I sobbed, the tears cold on my heated skin.  
“Shh. I’m right here.” He wrapped his arms around my waist holding me close. He ran one hand over my already wet hair and just held me as I cried. Once the tears began to slow I looked up at him. “What can I do to help?” I thought about asking if he would help me wash myself, help me make sure I didn’t hurt myself, but this isn’t what he had signed on for. I looked away not sure what to do. I felt his finger under my chin lifting my face again, “anything, just tell me what you need.”  
“I want to scrub myself clean, I want to wash away every touch of his but I’m scared. I’m scared that I will turn into the queen or whoever from Macbeth screaming out, out damned spot.” I could feel the tears gathering in my eyes again. Richard pressed a kiss to my forehead and grabbed his body wash. he poured a small amount into his hands and rubbed them together before sliding them over my body, using his own hands as a wash cloth. As he moved down my body laying light kisses on the darkened bruised skin, he slid to his knees in front of me. he ran his hands gently over every inch of skin, stopping to add more soap when needed. After he had lifted each foot he stood back up and slowly walked me back under the spray. He slid his hands back over my skin, pushing the water down and rinsing the suds off.   
“Tilt your head back.” He murmured. I followed his request and I felt him drag his hands through my hair, fully saturating it. He pulled me back out of the spray and this time lathered my hair with shampoo, rubbing and messaging my scalp. By the time, he rinsed my hair out I felt completely relaxed, felt like I hadn’t spent part of the night terrorized by my past again. “You ready to get out?” he asked.  
I nodded, not wanting to know if my voice still shook. He turned the water off and stepped out first before holding my hand as I stepped out. He grabbed a towel and tucked it around his waist. He pulled another one down and wrapped it around me. Before I had a chance to take a step toward the door when he opened it, he picked me up, cradling me in his arms, “What are you doing?” I smiled, a giggle wanting to slip from my throat.  
“Taking care of you.” He smiled gently down at me. “I put the lasagna in the oven so we can eat in a little bit.”  
“Thank you.” He carried me into his room and set me on the bed. “I think I can dress myself Richard.” I smiled up at him.  
“I’ll go finish getting dinner ready then.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead before walking into his closet. I changed into an oversized T-shirt and sweat pants from my bag. We headed out to the kitchen and dinner was just finishing. We ate dinner on the couch watching a musical. After we finished eating Richard rinsed the plates and I curled up into his arms where I stayed the rest of the night.


	8. Meet the Family

Through the night I woke up, a scream wanting to slide from my throat. Every time Richard would pull me back down and whisper in my ear until I fell back asleep. When I woke in the morning the sun was peaking over the trees in the back yard.  
“How are you feeling?”Richard asked gently.  
“Mentally or physically?” my voice sounded empty.  
“Both.” He gently rolled me over to look at him, “I know a wererat doctor and a werewolf psychiatrist. Just tell me what you need.”  
I just stared at him, “Did you say a wererat doctor and a werewolf psychiatrist?” I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice.  
“And a wereleopard nurse.”  
I looked at him, “you aren’t joking.”  
“Not even a little,” he smiled.  
“I appreciate the offer.” I said sitting up, “But I have nothing broken and I honestly don’t want to talk about how yesterday made me feel.”  
“How did it make you feel?’ he asked sitting up.  
“angry that he dare to invade my safe space, scared that I was still powerless to stop him.” I hugged myself.  
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call someone for you to talk to?”  
“so they can tell me that it wasn’t my fault? I already know that Richard.” I slid from bed, clenching my teeth as my ribs smarted, “a therapist is just going to tell me what I already know, what I was told over and over for weeks years ago. But thank you for the offer.”  
“So what do you want for breakfast?” He asked standing up.  
“What do you have?” I asked grabbing an over-sized sweater from my bag, I tended to sleep in short shorts and a tank top but always got cold as soon as I was out from under the covers.  
“I have pankcake mix, which we can use as waffle mix if we wanna pull out the waffle iron, eggs, bread, sausage and bacon.” He answered watching me struggle into the top.  
“pancakes with bacon.” I grinned ignoring the pain in my face. That was the only way to get over yesterday, move on and move past it. Not to let Mitch affect my life anymore than I had too.  
“sounds good.” He held a hand out for me to take before we made our way back into the living room. “So I was going to ask you last night if you wanted to do church with my family tomorrow, but if you aren’t up too it I can let them know.” He said pulling out what we needed for pancakes.  
“that’s fine, though I should probably let my parents know what happened last night.” I leaned my head against the wall not looking forward to that conversation, “so how about my parents tonight for dinner your family tomorrow morning for breakfast?” I asked knowing my mom would demand I come home as soon as possible so she could check me over.  
“I’m ok with that.” He said with a shrug.  
“I should warn you, tonights dinner will be all about my baby sister Melody.”  
“Even after you tell them what happened?” he turned to look at me as he mixed the batter.  
“Even after I tell them happened.” I shrugged, “my parents gave up on me when I chose to join to join the bowling team when they demanded I join a sport. I revived their attention for a short time when I announced I was going to become a therapist however once again became a disappointment when I stopped that.”  
“I don’t know how you could ever be a disappointment.” Richard said shaking his head.  
“Keep your ears open and you might just get to hear.” I said moving to sit on his couch, pulling my phone out of my back pack on the way. I called my dad, hoping I could avoid speaking to my mother at all costs.  
“Hello.” His voice was a welcomed sound, he had been my biggest rock after the first incident with Mitch.  
“Daddy, I need to tell you something, I had an accident last night.” Calling Mitch an accident was like calling a Category 5 hurricane a spring storm.  
“Are you ok, do wee need to drive up there?”  
“I’m ok daddy, Mitch showed up at my apartment last night.”  
“Did he hurt you again?”  
I swallowed, “Yeah he did, but not as bad. He wanted to but,” I stopped and took a deep breath. Me and Richard had been dating for just about a month but I hadn’t told my parents about it, “but my boyfriend came over in time to stop him.” the last part came out in a sob, all I could picture was Richard holding him by the throat, his anger so thick I could touch it. He walked over and laid a hand on my shoulder and I laid my head on his hand, wiping the tears away.  
“we will discuss the boyfriend angle latter. Have you gone to the doctors? Did you call the police?”  
I took a deep breath and steadied myself giving Richard a reassuring smile “I don’t need a doctor, He didn’t hurt me as bad as last time, and yes we did call the police.” I snorted, “they didn’t believe me, they tried to say Richard did this to me.”  
“Did you tell them you have a restraining order?”  
“Yeah, they still tried to get me to say that I was lying about Mitch.”  
“You need to come home, Jewel. You should be with your family.”  
“I will, I was going to come for dinner tonight, me and Richard.” I steeled myself for what was sure to be a fun conversation, “I need to stay up here for school, its too far of a drive everyday.”  
“you shouldn’t be staying alone, and is this relationship really serious enough to be bringing him home?”  
“I’m not alone dad, and yeah its pretty serious.”  
“I don’t think I need to tell you this Jewel, especially after last night, but you don’t really have the best judgement when it comes to guys. You never mentioned him over Christmas break so it is still a new relationship and you are already going to stay with him?”  
“Dad just because Mitch was a bad decision doesn’t mean every guy is.” I bit out. I should have known telling them about Richard was a bad idea, what the hell were they going to say when they found out how much older than me he was or the fact that he had been one of my professors? “I just wanted to tell you what happened and to see if you wanted us to come over for dinner, if not don’t worry about it we will be fine.”  
“No you will come home so we can make sure you are ok and so we can decide if this guy is actually a good guy and not another asshole.”  
“Good we will be there at 4.” I hung up before he could decide to argue.  
“Are you sure you want to go over there tonight?” Richard asked carrying two plates of pancakes over.  
“I have to, if I don’t they will call the cops and report me missing or something just as crazy.”  
“If you are sure you can handle it.”  
I grinned at him and took both plates and set them on his coffee table before pulling him onto the couch and moving to straddle his lap, “You are the sweetest person.” I said, a hand on either side of his face. I kissed him, pressing myself against him, sliding my fingers into his hair. His hands slid softly over my hips, pausing when he touched skin. “You wont break me Richard.” I said pulling back to look at him. I put my hands over his and slid them up my sides, under my shirt, “And you wont remind me of him. You never could.”  
“You’ll tell me if you want to stop right?” He asked, the doubt clear in his eyes.  
“I’ll never lie to you Richard.” I kissed him again, and this time he took me at my word, rolling us over so I was pressed to the couch with him over me. His hands were gently as he stripped me of my pajamas, lips tickling as he kissed each inch of skin as he bared it. I slid my hands over his still bare chest before pushing his pajama pants down over his hips. He slid into me slowly, inching his way in deeper and deeper as I withered and moaning under him. my release washed over me gently, and I was still shaking under Richard when I felt him follow me. He rolled us over so I was laying on his chest and I could feel myself drifting back to sleep, finally feeling safe again.

We woke up three hours later, the pancakes long gone cold. Richard Carried me to the bedroom and set me down on the bed with a smile. “I need food.” I said pulling him down for a kiss.  
“Get dressed, we’ll go grab something.” He said smiling. I moved over to my bag and pulled out a pair of jeans and a loose off the shoulder top. All my bruises were covered except the one on my cheek. Richard walked up behind me in a pair of dark jeans and a black T-shirt that hugged his chest. He slid his arms around my waist and kissed the bruised cheek so gently I barely felt the brush of lips. “You are so beautiful.”  
“Says the sexiest professor in the state.” I said turning in his arms. “I love you.” The words were out of my mouth before I realized I was saying them.  
“I love you too.” He said without a pause, leaning his head down till our foreheads rested against each other. I stared into his chocolate brown eyes and saw that he meant it.   
“lets go get food.”

Five hours later we pulled into my parents drive way. I didn’t bother to knock on the door instead walked in hollering my arrival. My sister was the first one to appear. She looked like me, a more perfect version of me. Her black hair fell gently in waves around her face, her green eyes were larger, more innocent looking, skin darkly tanned. She was petite, her final growth spurt putting her at only 5’2”, her high made her curves look more exaggerated, her waist two sizes smaller than my own and her chest a size bigger. Even with the muscles from her different sports she looked delicate, the way a girl was supposed to. My mother followed shortly behind her. Mom was built like Melody all short curves, the biggest difference was moms hair was red copper and her skin the paper white of our Irish heritage. My father was last and I was built like him, tall and lean. He had the black hair that both me and Melody sported and the darker skin that Melody had. The two of us were like a perfect split of our parents, you could see it in every family photo.  
“Mom, Dad, this is Richard Zeeman. Richard this is my Dad, Jamie, my Mom, Morgan, and my baby sister Melody.”  
“It’s nice to meet you all.” Richard smiled his full boy scout smile as he shook each of their hands.  
As soon as introductions were done my mother practically launched herself at me, “Oh baby, are you ok? Your father told me what happened.”  
I gasped as her arms pressed into the bruised ribs. “Mom please.” I tried to push her back, not able to handle the pain, “I’m fine I swear just sore, Richard came over and stopped him before he could hurt me anymore.”  
“Thank you so much for saving our little girl.” My mom had already turned on the water works when she turned to face Richard. Behind my parents my sister stood, watching everything with a blank expression.  
“I would do anything for Jewel.” Richard smiled.  
“Morgan, honey why don’t we move into the dinning room, you said the casserole was just about done.”  
“Oh that’s right of course.” My mother turned and moved into the dinning and then to the kitchen, My father and sister following to the dining room and me and Richard bringing up the rear.  
“Just be prepared, my sister is up to something.” I whispered to him.  
“Why do you say that?”  
“Because all the attention was just on me, she isn’t used to that and didn’t like it.”  
“we will just take things as they come.” He leaned down to kiss the top of my head.

We ended up around the table, my father at the head, me and mom next to him, Richard next to me and Melody across from him. We all bowed our heads as my father said grace before we dug into the meal my mother had made.  
“So where did you and Jewel meet?”  
“At school.” I supplied.  
“You look a little old to be a student.” My mother said.  
“I’m a professor.” Richard provided.  
“What subject do you teach?” My father asked, and I could see the evil grin spreading across Melody’s face.  
“Biology.” I wanted to kick Richard to make him shut up, I hadn’t thought about exactly what would happen when they found out that he had been one of my professors.  
“So that’s how you passed that class.” Melody said.  
“Shut up Melody.”  
“Jewel Elizabeth Anderson we do not speak to our sister like that at the table.” My mother chastised.  
I watched as my father’s eyes narrowed, “Daddy it’s not like that.” I could feel my heart racing, “we didn’t start dating till after I was out of his class, we had gotten to know each other because he was helping me study.”  
“I think you should leave, Mr. Zeeman.” His voice was a quiet I had heard too often growing up.  
“Dad.” I wanted to beg him to be reasonable, but I knew it would get me nowhere, “If he leaves, I leave.”  
“you will not step foot our side of this house young lady.” He said standing up. I stood to face him and felt Richard stand behind me.  
“I’m not a child anymore and I’m tired of you acting like I am. He has never done anything wrong and has done nothing but help me in more ways than one since we met. If you can’t accept him then don’t expect us to be back.” I turned and walked past Richard out the door, knowing he would follow me.  
“Jewel, you get back in here right this minute, you have not been excused.”  
I stopped in my tracks, all the frustration of years of never being good enough finally bursting. I turned and looked my father dead in the eye, “If only there were an excuse for how you act. I hope life with the fucking child prodigy is what you wanted.” Richard was out the door first and I slammed it with as much force as I could muster. I could hear several things crash to the floor as I walked away. I was shaking as I got back into Richard’s car.  
“Are you ok?” he asked turning to look at me.  
I looked back at him, tears welling in my eyes, “No.” I cried and he pulled me against his side before pulling out of the drive way. When we got back to his house we changed into out pajama’s in silence before curling around one another in bed.  
“It wasn’t just Mitch that caused you to go to a psychiatrist was it?”  
“Oh he was the cause, but its wasn’t just him that I was informed was abusive. According to my psychiatrist I would have been an anomaly to never have been in an abusive relationship as my parents have practically groomed me to be a victim, to believe I am less, that I am wrong.”  
“you are perfect.” He said gently kissing me.

I tugged on my shirt as I looked at myself in the mirror again. I had on a pair of dark jeans that clung to my legs and a pair of black wedges on. I had brought a green tank and had a shear black peasant top over it.  
“You look fine.” Richard said coming up behind me to lay a light kiss on my shoulder. “They are going to love you.”  
“your mom wont, not right away.”  
“Sure she will.”  
“Richard, your mother worships the ground that Anita walks on. You told me the story so I understand why. Hopefully I can win her over though.” I smiled at him in the mirror. He was wearing black dress slacks and a forest green dress shirt with black tie, and no we hadn’t planned this, at least I hadn’t, I just knew green was my best color  
“come on or we will be late.”  
“Wont that make a good impression?” I grinned as I followed him from the bedroom. Church followed by brunch at his parents couldn’t be any worse than how dinner had gone at my house. Richard helped me into my jacket before shrugging into his own and we left the house. 

When we got to the Church Richard walked toward a pew filled with just over a dozen people. We slid in next to them, Richard moving in next to Daniel and me at the end. We waited until after the service to start introductions. Daniel hugged me , followed by each of Richard’s brothers and his father while the three woman watched me with cool eyes. Soon we were on our way out of the church and on the way to Richard’s parents house.   
“So you met through school?” Beverly, Richard’s older sister asked. I looked to Richard, I wasn’t sure how his family would react to the fact that I had been a student.  
“She was in my biology class, I helped her with a mugger, and then tutored her.” Richard said with a shrug, “After finals we decided to try out something a little more serious.”  
“So how many of your tutors have you … gotten close to?” His mother asked.  
“Mother!” The shock in Richard’s voice rang clear, I set a hand on his arm.  
“I would have to say all of them.” I smiled, “Richard was my first tutor, according to him I was too intelligent to be failing biology and insisted on helping me. We from there realized we had similar interests, and we were people the other could confide in without judgement.”  
“did she pass?” Beverly asked raising an eyebrow.  
“Actually, Richard over estimated my abilities in biology, I got a C.” I shrugged.  
“Does she know?” His mother asked, looking him in the eye.  
“Yes.”  
“And what do you think of it?” she turned to me.  
“It doesn’t define who he is. Mrs. Zeeman you raised the most amazing man I ever met, I cant imagine anything could change that.” Daniel grinned at Richard.   
“will you protect him?”  
“With my life.”  
“Mom, Stop.” Richard was getting upset, but I had expected this, “Stop comparing her to Anita. Anita is never going to happen so just stop.” Charlotte Zeeman looked like her son had just told her he had killed her favorite puppy.  
“Mrs. Zeeman, Richard’s right I’m not Anita, I can’t be her. I don’t want to be her and I don’t want to replace her or remove her. I just want to be with Richard, I want to make him happy the way he makes me happy, and even though he doesn’t always admit it Anita does make him happy and I’m ok with that. It sounds cliché but she was here first, and I will gladly take second to her but I will only take second to her. I don’t expect to you believe me or even like me right away but I do want you to know Mrs. Zeeman that I do not want to hurt your son in anyway.”  
“Call me Charlotte.” Everyone around the table stared at us for a minute before the conversation turned to something else. I smiled at Richard and he smiled back, his eyes reflecting the love I felt. He leaned down to give me a light kiss. It was better than a passing grade in my book.


	9. Gee I can’t imagine why Richard isn’t with you/Just Like That

I was curled up in the corner of Richard’s couch when the doorbell rang. I could still hear Richard in the shower and figured it was some sort of package delivery that they needed a signature for. I slid off the couch and made my way to the door. When I opened the door instead of a delivery man standing on the porch there was a short girl with long dark hair and matching wide dark eyes. She had on black slacks with a bright red blouse; over the blouse was what looked to be a gun holster. Her pale face was smeared with dry blood.   
I screamed and tried to close the door, her foot sliding out and stopping me. “RICHARD!” I screamed backing up away as the woman walked in, eyes hard. My back hit Richard’s hard chest, still wet from the shower he had abandoned.   
“Anita, What are you doing here?” He asked stepping around me in nothing but a towel around his waist, his hands on calming on my shoulders. I stood a little to one side behind him so I could watch Anita. I was trying to link the woman who stood before me with the woman I had heard so much about, but the images didn’t match, I had pictured her taller.   
“Zebrowski called me last night and said your name came up in a Domestic report.”  
“Why is that any of your business?” I asked, drawing her attention back to me.  
“Who is that?” He voice and eyes were not friendly.  
“My girlfriend Jewel.” Richard answered, starting to sound frustrated.  
“Can we talk in private?” She asked, eyes widening.  
“She knows everything. You can talk in front of her.” Richard said sliding a protective arm around my waist. The look that washed over Anita’s face told me it had more meaning than just a show of support.  
“What do you mean she knows everything?” her voice held a growl.  
“I don’t have time for this Anita, we both have class in just a few hours and its not like its right down the street.  
“Make time Richard. If Micah and the rest of coalition are going to have to clean up your mess they have a right to know the details.”  
“It has nothing to do with Richard and honestly I don’t know you well enough to cry on your shoulder about my problems.” I said moving to stand in front of Richard.  
“Oh look you finally found someone with a spine.” Anita said walking toward me. I felt a chill slide down my spine as her eyes went empty, “ I don’t give a shit about your problems, but if they start to affect Richard’s Pack, My pack, My friend, your problems will be become my problems. If your problems become my problem then you become my problem, and you will not like how I deal with my problems.”  
I looked at her for a minute, in her own way she had just threatened to kill me, “Gee I can’t imagine why Richard isn’t with you.” I saw the look of pain fill her empty eyes for just a minute before they went blank again.  
“Jewel, why don’t you go get ready so we can grab breakfast before we head to Campus.” Richard said gently moving me back away from Anita and behind him, “Anita you need to go now, We can talk about this later. It wont affect you and the pack isn’t your concern anymore.” Richard said.  
“You made me Bolverk, the pack is my concern.”  
“We will talk about this later.” Richard lowered his voice, “Where is your escort?”  
“Nicky’s in the car.”  
“Then you should be with him.”  
“This isn’t over, we will talk about this Richard.”  
“We will,” I watched as she left without looking back.  
“I’m sorry.” I said after the door was closed, “I didn’t mean to make things harder.”  
“She has a way of pushing people’s buttons.” He said walking over and sliding his hands down my arms. “If you want to do breakfast we do need to get going.”  
“Does that mean I can’t join you for the rest of your shower?” I asked looking up at him through my lashes. He narrowed his eyes at me and I couldn’t help but laugh, “alright, alright I’ll go get dressed.” I grinned up at him.  
“You are going to be the death of me.” he said pressing his lips to mine.  
“But you will enjoy every minute of it.”

We were watching one of our favorite movies on the couch that night when I felt Richard stiffen behind me a minute before there was a knock at the door. “What’s wrong?” I asked.  
“A few of my pack members are here.” He said turning the TV off and standing up. “You may want to wait in the bedroom.”  
“They’re like a second family to you right?” I asked looking up at him.  
“Well yeah.” I could see the confusion in his eyes.  
“They’ll be able to tell I’m here no matter where I am right?”  
“Yes.” He drew the word out in confusion.  
“this sort of thing is common correct?”  
“yes.”  
“So should I hide every time you have a pack emergency or should I just meet them now?”  
“I guess you can meet them now.” He smiled down at me like he finally understood all my questions.  
“I guess I meet them now.” I grinned as he stood up. When he opened the door a slender woman with brown hair in a business suit came in followed by a short muscular man with blonde hair in what looked like mesh shirt and leather pants.  
“Coming from work Jason?” Richard asked as he came in  
“No going.” The man shrugged. He was followed by an overly tall Asian man and an equally tall black man with waist length dreads.   
“What’s up guys?” Richard said closing the door. They all just stared at him.  
“Anita wasn’t enough?” the woman said, “Now you want us to talk in front of her?” she said tilting her head in my direction.  
I looked at Richard whose expression had darkened at her words. I sighed and stood up walking over to the group, trying not to gasp as I hit the wall of power surrounding them all. “Hi my name is Jewel and you are?” I reached my hand out to the woman, since she had been the one to speak up I figured she must be the one in charge of this whole thing besides Richard. For a moment she just looked at me, a look of disapproval on her face, “Look you don’t have to like me, I’m not looking for any friends, I just figured that since we are both going to be a part of Richard’s life we should at least be on a first name basis.”  
“Sylvie.” Her voice came out a little deeper than it had just been as she reached out to shake my hand, squeezing it in her own. I stared at her refusing to wince even as she narrowed her eyes at me. after a few moments of her glaring and me smiling blankly at her she let go and I turned toward the shortest of the group.  
“Jason.” He grinned, blue eyes sparkling, “oh I can so see how you would have gotten under Anita’s skin.”  
“I didn’t mean too.” I told him honestly.  
“And that would be why you did.” He chuckled. I couldn’t help but smile before I turned to the Asian, who like the woman Sylvie just looked at my hand, I sighed and looked back. Unlike Sylvie he wasn’t glaring at me but instead gave me a blank look, so I gave him the same in return.  
“I’ll make you a deal, shake my hand, tell me your name, I move on and then I can go in the bedroom so you all can have your private conversation.”  
“Shang-Da.” He growled out.  
“Well aren’t you just a lovely person.” I said shaking his hand before moving to the last of the four wolves.  
“What is it with you and finding these pushy ass white human chicks Richard?” He asked looking over my head.  
“We find him.” I answered smiling.  
“Jamal.”  
“Well it was nice to meet you all, and as I said before I am going to go to the bedroom, turn on some music and work on some homework.”  
“Just like that?” Jamal, frowned at me.  
“Just like that. If this is some werewolf thing then it doesn’t concern me, If its some personal thing then none of you know me well enough for me to know about it.” I could feel Sylvie’s eye narrow at my back and ignored her.  
“I think I like this one more than Anita.” Jamal said.  
“And I think that really is the sign that I need to go.” I turned to walk to the bedroom when Richard snaked his arm out and snagged me by the waist and pulled me into him, “What?” I laughed.  
“Try not to cover every inch of the room in papers?” he said with a grin.  
“No promises.” I raised up and gave his cheek a kiss before making my way into the bedroom.  
“We won’t accept you as Lupa.” Sylvie said when I was half way down the hall, “We accepted one human and it did nothing but tear us apart.”  
I turned to look at her, and walked back, “Is that why you’re here? To tell Richard you wont have his human girlfriend be what, the Queen to his King? I’m guessing that is what Lupa means correct? I don’t want to be Queen, unlike Anita I have no clue about the whole lycanthrope thing. I just want to be able to love Richard just the way he is. If that means he comes with a whole group of the once a month furries and that I have to go hide in the bedroom when they need their leader, then that’s what I’ll do. I don’t want to change him, at all, I just want to love him.”  
“You don’t care that he’s a monster?” she asked in disbelief.  
I took a deep breath to steady myself, “Get out.” I grit my teeth, “Get the hell out!” I screamed before I could stop myself, “Richard Zeeman is not a monster, he never could be, and if you can stand there and say that then get the hell out of this house.”  
“Keep this one Richard, don’t fuck it up.” She said turning and walking out of the house.  
“Jewel, you need to calm down.” Richard said gently.  
“The same goes for the rest of you, if you can honestly think he is a monster then get the hell out of this house.” I turned and quickly made my way to the bedroom and slammed the door. I ignored my school bag and flipped on the radio, turning it up till I knew that they would hear it and not me. I grabbed my phone and slipped out of the patio doors to sit on Richards back deck. I was already on Sandy’s number before I realized I couldn’t call her. I couldn’t call and vent that Richard’s pack was the reason I was havening to constantly convince him he wasn’t a monster, because I couldn’t tell her that her boss was a werewolf. I screamed and let myself collapse onto the steps   
“You honestly don’t think he’s a monster, that we are all monsters?” Sylvies voice said from about two yards to my left.  
I glared up at her, “No, I don’t think that just because you are a werewolf that you are a monster. I think that you are still the person you were before, and Richard is an amazing person. You? I don’t know well enough to say that, you could be a monster, but it wouldn’t be the fact that you are a werewolf that would make you one.”  
“I thought that if Richard and Anita could get over their shit she would honestly be the best person for him, for this pack, but I’m starting to think I was wrong. You may actually be what Richard needs.”  
“Why do you care?”  
“I care because the entire pack suffers when Richard has one of his snits, besides around Christmas he hasn’t had one almost all school year.” She tilted her head to the side as if she were studying me, “why do I think that has something to do with you?”  
I shrugged, “I don’t know, all I know is that for the longest time I was trying to figure out why he would think of himself as a monster, his family doesn’t treat him like that, but I hadn’t really met any of his friends, until now. I figured the last people to call someone a monster is someone who was going through the same thing as him, but apparently I was wrong.” I stood back up.  
“For a human you sure do have balls.” She laughed, “I wonder what would you be like if you were a wolf, would you still think that it didn’t make you a monster?” I could feel my heart speeding up, she was talking about changing me.  
I heard the sliding door open, the music from inside flooding out, “Sylvie it is time for you to go.” Richards said, anger thick in his voice.  
“yes sir.”  
“Are you okay?” he said sliding his hands down my shoulders, and slipping them around my waist, pulling me back against him.  
“Are you?”  
“I’ll be just fine.” He said kissing the side of my neck.  
“I love you Richard.”  
“I love you too babe.”


	10. No To The Beginning

I was laying on Richard’s living room floor, my books sprawled out around me. “You do realize you will retain more if you focus on one subject at time.” Richard said from the couch.  
“I don’t have time to focus on one subject at a time, I have two finals a day for the next week.” I whined pathetically.  
“You know they say its beneficial to take study breaks.” He said, suggestion in his voice.  
I turned to look at him over my shoulder, “You get nothing until after I am done with finals, don’t you have tests to grade?”  
“I don’t remember you being this tense last semester.”   
“That’s because last semester wasn’t my last semester, this is it, after this I graduate.”  
“Are you saying my class wasn’t a big deal?” he said his finger dancing up my sides.  
I wiggled laughing as he tickled me rolling over on my back. He leaned over me eyes glinting. “Maybe if you helped me study like you did last semester I would do better,”  
“hmmm, is that so?” he asked moving his head down to nibble at my collar bone.  
“Very much so, look at how good I did on your final,” I said trying to keep my voice from going breathy, which was hard when he knew all my sensitive spots.  
“If I remember correctly that last night of studying ended in your bedroom.” He grinned.  
“Did it?” I slid my arms over his shoulders. He sat up pulling me with him.  
“It did.” He stood up, hands under my ass, lifting me into the air as he did.  
I wrapped my legs around his waist and kissed him lightly, “I really do need to study.” I whispered.  
“You really do need a break.” He said kissing me back as we headed to the bedroom.  
“Are you always this persuasive?” I moaned as his lips found my neck, teeth scraping over my pulse.  
“When I want to be.” He mumbled into my skin just before he dropped me onto the bed. 

“So what’s the news?” Richard asked when he walked into my apartment.  
“I passed everything.” I grinned at him.  
“Why am I not surprised?” he said kissing me lightly.  
“What about you, how was the last class of the semester?” I asked as he sat next to me on the couch.  
“it left me with a lot of tests to grade …. I’m starting to understand the appeal of teaching online classes, the computer can grade your tests for you.”  
“I thoughts why you had Sandy.” I grinned.  
“I try not to have my Teachers Aids grade finals as they normally have their own finals to deal with.”  
“So does that mean you are going to be busy tonight?” I asked sliding into his lap.  
“I am never to busy for you.” He smiled.  
“I love you.” I said running my hands through his hair.  
“I love you too.” He said kissing me gently, “Have you told your parents about graduation yet?”  
“No and I wasn’t really planning to.” I still hadn’t spoken to my parents since the night of the disastrous dinner.   
“They are still your family, you should tell them.”  
“Why its not like they care.” I said moving off his lap and going into the kitchen.  
“Don’t get mad at me.” He said coming up behind me, wrapping his arms against my back and pulling me against him.  
“I’m not mad at you,” I sighed leaning my head against him, “But this is a big deal to me, I’m graduating college and I want people there who will be proud of me, not people who are just going to compare my failures to my sisters success.”  
“They are your parents of course they will be proud of you.”  
“You met them Richard, how can you still believe that I will ever be good enough for them?”  
“They are your parents” he shrugged “You are better than enough, you are amazing, and one of these days they will realize that.”   
“Maybe you’re right.” I sighed relaxing into his.  
“Don’t you know by now, I’m always right.” He said kissing my neck, “Call them and tell them about graduation, then its up to them.”  
“fine.” I pulled out my phone and called my parents’ house, snuggling back into Richard, not wanting to deal with them at all.   
The phone rang three time before my mother picked up, “Anderson residence.”  
“Mom its, Jewel, I was just calling to let you guys know that this Saturday is my graduation if you wanted to come.”  
“Oh Jewel, we have been so worried about you, you need to come home, your father was just upset. You are being completely irrational and acting irresponsible dating a teacher!”  
“Mom I am not discussing this with you, I am not coming home, I am not leaving Richard, You can come or not its up to you” I said before hanging up.  
“Are you okay?” Richard asked, his chin resting on the top of my head.  
“They wont accept this, and I won’t leave you just to make them happy, I am tired of trying to change my life to make them happy.”   
“You don’t have to change to make them happy, making them happy isn’t your job, but you can still invite them to be a part of it.” He said.  
“When did you get so smart?” I asked looking up at him.  
“I’m thinking it was when I started teaching,” he grinned.

Three days later I sat in a chair in the gym, waiting for my turn to go up on stage. Sandy was four seats down from me and we kept glancing at each other smiling. Soon we were making our way across the stage and getting our diplomas. I smiled to where Richard was sitting as I was handed my diplomas before making my way to back my seat. Being at the front of the alphabet meant that I spent the next hour sitting in my seat, watching as the rest of the class got their diplomas. By the time the ceremony was over I couldn’t help but search for Richard in the crowd. As soon as I saw him I quickly made my way through the crowd. I was about ten feet from him when my parents and sister were suddenly in front of me.  
“You finally did it honey,” My dad beamed down at me, “Now you can come home, we’ll even help you pack your apartment tonight.”  
The statement stopped me in my tracks, they still didn’t understand, “Dad I’m not moving home, nothing has changed besides I’m no longer in school.” I shook my head, the glow from just graduating already fading, “I’m not giving up my apartment, I’m not leaving Richard, I’m not giving up my friends, I’m not quitting my job.”  
“Oh honey don’t be silly, of course your moving home, you can’t be by yourself.” Mom said, looking at me like I had grown a second head.  
“Why not?” I asked, fighting the urge to cross my arms stubbornly.  
“Well…” She stuttered looking at my father for support.  
“Because you can’t take care of yourself, Now we have allowed you to do this long enough, we should have forced you back home after Mitch, and especially after bringing home a teacher as your boyfriend, but now you have no reason to stay here and you will move back home.”  
“I knew this was a mistake,” I said shaking my head, “You don’t allow me to do anything, I take care of myself. I work, and I pay my own bills, I have taken care of myself for the last four years. Yes Mitch was a mistake, one if I remember correctly you both loved when you met him. You both fawned over him, when I was with Mitch you never questioned when I stopped coming home, you never questioned when I stopped calling. And yet the moment you got the call that I was in the hospital nearly dead you started to care and you became over baring. But just because you fucked up and liked the one mistake I made doesn’t earn you anything. Anthony wasn’t a mistake, he was even sweet, but you wouldn’t know because I never wanted you to meet him. and Richard is the farthest thing from a mistake, He makes me laugh, he takes care of me when I need him too and lets me take care of him when he needs it. We can sit for hours in silence or we won’t stop laughing till our sides hurt, and no one including you will make me think that is wrong. Now you can either accept this and join us and my friends at dinner to celebrate or you can go home.” I pushed past them and quickly made my way to where Richard was standing.   
“Everything ok?” He asked sliding his arm over my shoulders.   
“I think so,” I smiled up at him tucking myself against his side arm around his waist.  
“Congratulations, I am so proud of you.” He said leaning down and kissing me.  
“Thank you.” I grinned up at him.  
“So are you two done sneaking around?” Dr. Fane asked with an amused look on his face.  
“Shut up Louie.” Richard growled, with no real menace in his voice.  
“Oh stop,” I said tapping his chest with my diploma, “Me and my study group are going to dinner to celebrate, come with?” I asked.  
“If you want me too.”  
“I do,”  
“What about your family?”  
I took a deep breath and refused to look for them, “they seem to think that I will now pack up my apartment leave everything and move home. I told them that wasn’t going to happen, that they could accept this and come to dinner or they could go home.”  
“I’m sorry” he kissed the top of my head.  
“Not your fault,” I smiled up at him, “You ready for dinner?”  
“Yeah just have to stop at my office, you want to come with?”  
“Sure.”

We arrive about 10 minutes after the rest to the restaurant. I sat between Sandy and Richard, not at all surprised by the lack of my family. I was surprised that no one mentioned the fact that we had shown up together or that we had kissed at the graduation, but I just rolled with it.  
“To the end.” Sandy said raising her drink.  
“No,” I grinned, “To the beginning.” We all took a long drink before setting our drinks down, chatter rising. Soon my hand had slid over to grasp Richard’s comfortably on his knee. When the food came the noise dimmed, but only slightly. I had ordered the salmon fillet while Richard had ordered a rare steak.   
“Want to try? He asked, holding his fork out to me with a bite sized chunk of steak.  
“Sure,” I smiled, leaning forward to take the bite off his fork, the meat melting in my mouth.  
“we are so coming here more often.” I grinned.  
“you know you two are disgusting.” Erik said from across from me. the chatter died instantly and I felt Richard stiffen next to me, this is what he had been afraid of, “I mean seriously the whole love stricken looks are disgusting. You two are like two teenagers.” I sighed in relief he wasn’t talking about our relationship, but about the PDA and looks we had been exchanging.  
“Oh shut up Erik your just jealous no one is offering you food off their fork.” Sandy said with an eye roll.  
“Yeah your right.” He said with a shrug, “but seriously I think I just got diabetes watching them.”  
“Not my fault the only sugar you get is from watching others.” I teased, feeling Richard relax again next to me.  
“Like I said disgusting.”


	11. I was Home

I groaned when I heard my phone ring on the night stand. Blindly I reached out for it even as Richard’s arm tightened around my waist.  
“Who is it?” he mumbled into my hair, we had taken to staying up later and later since it was summer.  
I glanced at the caller ID and sighed, “My landlord, probably wanting to know if I’m renewing my lease again.”  
“You don’t have to.” He said pushing himself up on one arm and looking down at me. I hit the ignore button and rolled onto my back.  
“What do you mean?” I knew what he meant, or at least I thought I knew, but I had to be sure.  
“You spend most nights here anyway, move in with me.” he shrugged.   
“Just like that, you want me to move in?”  
“Well you don’t have to, but I wouldn’t mind,” he leaned down and kissed me gently, “I like the nights you stay here and hate the nights that you don’t. You already have three drawers in the dresser and almost half the closet, you keep a tooth brush here and even have a small make up bag in the bathroom. You have nearly already moved in and this way you wouldn’t have to keeping paying rent for an apartment you’re never at.”  
“well when you put it like that.” My phone beeped again and I looked down to see that my landlord had left a voice mail. I frowned, he had never down that before. Sitting up I quickly dialed into my voicemail and put the phone to my ear.  
“Ms. Anderson, This is Mr. Coners calling. As you know your lease is up at the end of next month. I was just calling to let you know, do to many factors we have decided not to offer you a lease renewal, we will need you to have everything out by the end of next month and due to the damages earlier this year we will not be returning your deposit. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me, thank you and have a nice day.” when the message ended I just stared at the phone, they were kicking me out.  
“Are you okay?” Richard asked gently from behind me.  
“I don’t know.” I frowned, I sighed turning to look at him, “are you really sure you want me to move in? I mean I can always find another apartment, one closer to your place.”  
“I’m sure, I love you and I want you here.” He said sitting up and wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me against him, “Don’t look for another apartment, just move in with me, please.”  
“OK.” I sighed leaning my head back against his shoulder, “I love you too.”  
“Good.” He kissed the side of my neck, “Now how about we go start working on your apartment, maybe have one more night of Chinese and movies there?”  
“Sounds good.”

That night we were curled up on my couch with boxes piled everywhere, all that was left for packing was my kitchen.  
“What are we going to do with all my furniture?” I asked, tilting my head back to look at him.  
“Well, its up to you. We can sell it, put it in storage, or if you want we can rearrange things in the basement and you can have your own space as big as you want down there.”  
“Oh sure just shove me in the basement.” I said with a laugh turning to grin at him.  
“I’ll make sure to feed and water you.” He smirked.  
“You are a brat.”   
“Yeah but you love me.”  
“Yeah I do.” I snuggled into his chest, letting the familiarity of it all wash over me, my eyes drifting closed.

We spent the night on the couch curled around each other and the next morning we finished packing up the kitchen before starting to move everything over to Richard’s place. I decided in the end to just donate the cheep furniture that filled my apartment and was surprised when the blonde, Jason, showed up to help Richard load everything into the back of a truck.   
“Any chance you wanna donate this stuff to Pack central?” He asked as he lifted one end of the couch.  
I shrugged as I grabbed a box to follow them down with, “Sure,” I grinned, “didn’t realize there was such a thing.”  
“Yeah we don’t let humans know, gives em to much power, but I figure since your with our King here then you don’t count, and we need knew furniture,” he grinned.  
“Jason, stop talking and start lifting,” Richard growled.  
“Oh stop it, he’s here helping us, and you know this isn’t heavy,” I say moving to press a kiss to Richards cheek, “Don’t worry we can talk more after Jason, come over for Dinnercx as a thank you.”  
“Jewel.” I rolled my eyes at the tone in Richard’s voice.  
“Richard.” I challenged making my tone match his. With a light growl he gave the couch a small shove to start Jason backing out of the apartment. I followed them down with my box and we made several more trips like that until the apartment was completely empty. I kissed Richard good bye so he could go with Jason to unload the furniture to where ever they were taking it. I set the keys on the counter and walked through the apartment one last time. I had spent the last seven years in these four rooms and as I left the apartment I felt like I was closing the door to an entire part of my life.

When I got back to Richard’s I started to unload the boxes. The few boxes of clothes I had I quickly unpacked and put away in Richards, our, closet and dresser. I made room in the bathroom for the rest of the toiletries I’d still had at the apartment. Moving back into the main house I began to integrate my dishes into Richard’s. By the time Richard came how though the situation had set in and he found me sitting on the living room surrounded by the boxes filled with all of the nicnacs that I had accumulated, my DVD’s and CD’s, the through pillows from my couch and chair, and I was crying. He sat behind me and pulled e into his lap, letting me curl into him and sob, rubbing small circles on my back and making soothing noises.  
“What’s wrong love?” He asked when I had finally stopped crying.  
“I don’t know where to put any of this.” I sniffed.  
“we’ll make room,” he kissed the top of my head, “this isn’t just my house any more, it’s yours.” After spending a few more minutes cuddled on the floor he helped me to stand. My pillows got added to his on the couches and chair, our CD’s and DVD’s becoming intermingled on the shelves. And as we made room on the shelves for my nicnacs we told each other stories about different items, learning even more about each other.

Jason called to see if he could take a rain check on Dinner after I stole the phone from Richard to assure Jason that I was going to hold him to that me and Richard settled on chicken and noodles for dinner and ate on the back porch cuddled on the small patio set that was out there. When we went to bed that night I realized that Richard had accomplished his goal, I was home.


	12. Not Now, Not Here

“Why are we going here again?” Richard asked as we made our way toward the Circus of the Damned.  
“Because I have lived in St. Louis for almost ten years and have never been to any of the Vampire attractions.” I grinned at him, “its this or Guilty Pleasures with Sandy. I may even wait for a night Jason is there.”  
Richard grabbed me by the waist and pulled me in against him. “you are so not going to Guilty Pleasures.” He said pressing a kiss to my lips. I melted at the possessiveness in his voice.   
“Then we are going in.” I whispered against his lips. I grabbed his hand and stepped away pulling him with me toward the building. We waited in line in the chilling Autumn air slowly moving towards the front of the building, half way through I leaned against Richard, cuddling into his warmth. When we finally got inside I grinned, starting to feel like a child at the fair. “Come on!” I said pulling him behind me. I pulled him from game to game laughing as I fell back into my childhood, Richard even won me a stuffed wolf at one of the games. We made our way into the large Big top and I grinned as we sat only a few rows from the very front.   
“You really are enjoying this aren’t you?” Richard asked with a grin as I curled into his side.  
“Yes I am, now at least pretend you are.” I elbowed him.  
“For you anything.” He says pressing a kiss to the top of my head. Soon the lights dimmed and when the spot light turned on there was a figure standing in the center of the ring. He was dressed in the typical ring master apparel but the standard red had been replaced with glittering gold that matched the near ankle length hair.   
“Folk today we have a spectacular show lined up for you.” The man said his thickly accented voice sending shivers through the crowd. I felt Richard’s grip tighten on my shoulder and looked up at him as a small wave of the tingles moves across my skin.  
“Asher is very good at his Job,” he leans into whisper, “I just don’t want you to get too swept away.” Seeing the slight concern in his eyes I snuggle into the warmth of his side, laying my head on his shoulder. Soon Asher was introducing Melanie the lamia and her * men.

After the amazing show me and Richard made our way toward the exit of the large arena, his arm still curled over me, his magic still a light buzz along my skin as I leaned against his side.   
“Mon Lupe, its good to see you again,” a rich voice said from behind us and I felt Richard stiffen next to me, “finally.” The last word had enough bite to it that I shivered.   
“Not now,” Richard’s voice was just a barely a whisper but I could hear the growl in it, “not here.”  
“Yes now, yes here.” The voice was now filled with what sounded like rage.  
“Richard?” I looked up at him wondering if we were in trouble, we were the only two left in the big tent and I could see the back of three people just outside the doors blocking our exit.   
“It’s fine.” He said pressing a kiss to the top of my head. I slid my hand into his that was resting just below my shoulder and squeezed slightly. “In Asher’s office and she stays out here.” He said in a clear hard voice.  
“Oui.”   
“No” I said looking up at Richard, “I’m coming with you.”  
“Jewel,” he frowned down at me.  
“No Richard you are not leaving me out here.” I tried to explain with my eyes that I didn’t want to be left alone, with no one I knew.  
“I can see why she has, how do they say it, caught your eye.” The man behind us said and I couldn’t help but glare back at him. He was gorgeous, pale skin the color of moon light with thick black hair falling in tight curls to his waist. His brilliant blue eyes shown like liquid pools of Sapphire that I wanted to sink into. “and how she would have rubbed Ma Petit the wrong way.” His voice wrapped around us like silk.  
“Jewel.” Richard gave me a quick shake and I felt like I was being pulled back from the edge of sleep. I shook my head and looked up ay him, “no eye contact.”  
“right.”  
“I’ll stay with her.” Jason said from behind the man, “so she’s not out here alone.” I looked up surprised to hear his voice and finally noticed him there.   
“You ok with that?” Richard asked looking down at me.  
I nod, not full happy with leaving him to go take care of what ever this was, “Thank you,” I said smiling at Jason  
“No problem, we can go hit the food court.” He said moving past the vampires and offering me his arm. I slid my hand from Richard’s and into the crook of Jason’s elbow.  
“I’ll be there in just a few minutes,” he said pressing a kiss to my forward.  
“I’m gonna hold you to that,” and with a spur of courage that came from no where I turned to the Vampire and glared, “and you owe me for ruining date Night.” I nearly growled before letting Jason drag me from the room.  
“You sure do have balls Jewel.” He chuckled as the guards at the door let them through.  
“What was all that Jason?” I asked when we sat at a table me with a corn dog, Jason with a water.  
I watched his face shift into uneasy lines, “I don’t know if I’m the person who should tell you about it.”  
I reached across the table and set my hand on his, the same radiant warmth coming from him as Richard had, “I don’t want to get you in trouble Jason,” I glanced back to the doors that Richard was behind, “I just worry about him. Can you at least tell me who the Vamp was?” I asked looking back to him.  
He laughed, “You don’t watch the rag channels much do you?”  
“Not really, no,”  
“That was Jean Claude, the head of the Vampire Council in the US, He’s like the vampire’s president.”  
“What does that have to do with Richard?” I asked still confused.  
“That is something you will need to talk to Richard about,” Jason said with an apologetic smile.  
“Does it have something to do with Anita?”  
“Yeah,”  
“You like her don’t you?”  
“Anita?” Jason looked at me in surprise “she’s one of my best friends to be honest. I know she comes off as a hard ass, and she is, but its only because Richard’s …. Girlfriends, we’ll call them, have caused a lot of trouble for him in the past and Anita always ends up havening to clean up the mess while Richard is busy licking his wounded pride.”  
“I don’t want to cause anyone any trouble.” I assured, “I love him Jason, and honestly I just want to be part of his life.”  
“Give it time Jewel, I think in time you and Anita will come to be friends,”  
“Don’t go giving her the wrong idea about me Jason,” a cold voice said from behind me. I turned to find Anita standing behind me dressed similarly to what she was wearing the first time we met sans the blood. Behind her was a tall overly muscled man with brilliant blue eyes, at least the one I could see, the other covered by a triangle of blonde hair. Next to him was a short man, about the same height as Anita and dressed in a business suit. He had curly dark hair and was wearing a pair of dark sun glasses, even with the business suit you could see he was muscled nearly as much as the other guy.   
“Anita,” it was the shorter of the two, and her name came out as a soft *.  
“What are you doing here?” Anita’s voice was cold as she stared down at me.  
“Well I was enjoying a day out with Richard until he had to go take care of some business and Jason offered to take me to the food court, what’s it matter to you?”  
Anita studied me with a cold look before turning to Jason, “where are they?”  
“Asher’s office.” He answered, “Anita, give her a chance.” He said voice gentle.  
“Jason, your friends with everyone,” her eyes weren’t as cold when she looked at him, “I’ll stay cynical” We watched as the trio made their way into the big top tent where Richard still was.  
“So much for us ever being friends.” I said rolling my eyes.  
“Give it time.” He said sending me a reassuring smile.

It took another ten minutes before Richard came out from the big top and made his way toward us. I could tell that what ever had been said had pissed him off royally.   
“you ready to go?” he asked striding over to the table.  
“Yeah, everything ok?” I asked as I stood up.  
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He nearly growled. I took a deep breath to bite back the retort that was on the tip of my tongue and followed him back out to the car. The ride home was silent and I could feel Richard nearly vibrating next to me as I looked out the window. When we got to the house I followed Richard in where he immediately headed back toward the bedroom. With a growl I slammed the door. I watched him stiffen in the hallway.  
“We gonna talk about it now?” I asked crossing my arms.  
“Don’t do this Jewel.” He said his back still to me.  
“Damn it Richard just talk to me, we have always talked to each other.”   
“I don’t want to talk about it, can we just go to bed, its late.”  
“Fine.” I grit my teeth and locked the door behind me. I followed Richard into the bedroom and we both went through our night routine getting ready. After I pulled on my pajamas I grabbed my pillow from the bed and headed toward the door.  
“Jewel what are you doing, where are you going?” I could hear the confusion in Richard’s voice.   
“To the spare room,” I said taking a deep breath, “if you wont talk to me then I’m sleeping in the spare room.” With that I opened the bedroom door stepped out and closed it again making my way to the small room down the hallway. I tossed my pillow onto the bed and crawled in between the cold sheets, curling onto my side and letting out a breath. I felt the first tear slip down my cheek and buried my face into the pillow to muffle the sob. We had never fought before and it felt as if my heart were breaking. I tossed and turned all night even after I had cried myself out. I wanted to go back to our room and curl into Richard’s arms but I couldn’t bring myself too. I could just barley see the sky starting to lighten when I faintly heard the patio doors in the bedroom open and then close. Slowly I made my way out of the room and back down the hall. I opened the door and saw the bed was empty and the covers were twisted on the bed as if Richard had had just as hard a time sleeping as I had. Glancing out the glass door I saw the faint puddle that showed he had shifted into his wolf form for the run. I crawled onto the bed and buried my face into his pillow breathing in his woody small and sobbed again. This time when I finished crying I had fully wrapped myself in the bedding that smelled of Richard and fell into a fit full sleep.  
I woke slowly and groggily, pulled tight to a warm chest and could feel the hot sunlight streaming into the room. I titled to find Richard’s sleeping face above mine. I laid back down resting my head on his chest.   
“I’m sorry.” He deep voice rumbled through his chest under my cheek, “I was an ass last night.”  
“yeah you kinda were.” I whispered knowing he could easily hear me.  
“forgive me?” he asked.   
“Talk to me?” was my response, “Just because I don’t want to change who and what you are doesn’t mean that I want to be kept in the dark. I spent nearly an hour waiting for you yesterday Richard, and all I asked for was for you to talk to me after.”  
“I don’t like talking about it Jewels, I made a mistake years ago, I tied myself to Anita and Jean Claude permanently. There’s no way for me to break the connection, and technically Jean Claude is my … Master.” I could hear the word stick in his throat.   
“What happened yesterday?” I asked moving to sit next to him.  
He sighed, “the normal, I make him look weak, especially when I waltz in and out of his business and home without notifying him or paying him a visit.”  
“Why didn’t you warn me going there could get you into trouble?”   
“Its not like that, and you wanted to go, I don’t like disappointing you.”  
“Oh Richard.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and snuggled into him, “you could never disappoint me, piss me off by not talking to me, but not disappoint me.”  
“I missed you last night.” He said against my hair.  
“I missed you too.” I said before kissing him. I felt his big hands grip my hips a moment before I was air born, I gasped laughing as he settled me onto his lap. I leaned down to kiss him again shivering as he slid his hands under my top. Soon he had me completely undressed and I wasn’t surprised to find him naked under the blankets. He sat up against the head board so we were pressed tightly together as I slowly rode him. He kept his large hands gripped at the top of hips, nearly at my waist, our eyes locked on each other’s. As we both got closer to coming I watched Richard’s eyes bleed from his dark rich brown to the bright Amber of his wolf’s. When he tried to turn his head away I jerked his head back gripping his hair in my hands, “Look at me.” I ordered, voice breathy. As soon as his eyes locked back onto mine I screamed, shaking in pleasure. I felt him buck up under me, forcing his hard girth harder into me making me scream and whither. Rolling us over Richard gripped my hands in one of his above my head the other lifting my hips as he pounded himself into me.   
“Mine,” he growled into my ear just before he stiffened and came above me, the feeling forcing me into another orgasm myself. I screamed out jerking and twisting under him. slowly Richard loosened his grip on me as he leaned down to kiss me gently.  
“I love you.” I whisper as he rolls us back over again so I can settle on his chest.  
“I love you too.” He murmured pressing a kiss to my head.


	13. Right Here, Right Now

I stood outside the warehouse with the vibrant glowing letters that proclaimed, “Dance Macabre”. I shivered in the chilly night air and tugged at the bottom of the skin tight black dress that Sandy had borrowed me for this. I walked up to the bouncer and flashed him my ID. The music thrummed loudly and I looked around. I quickly spotted the roped off area on the second floor and made my way up there. A few feet from the thick red velvet rope I felt a delicate yet strong hand close over my chiffon covered arm. I followed the arm up with my gaze to find it attached to a thin red head. She was dressed in a skin tight red body suit that showed off her voluptuous curves.  
“I’m sorry but this is the VIP area, you cant go in without invitation.”  
Before I could answer with something scathing a deep voice came from just past the rope, “Paris, let her go.” Jean-Claude glided toward us, “what have we done to earn a visit from the Jewel of our Richard’s eye.”   
I felt the woman stiffen but paid her no attention, “We need to talk, right here, right now.”  
“May I request we take this to my office?” he asked.  
“Lead the way.” I said with a quirked eye brow. I followed him up another floor and back till we reached his office. He opened the door and bowed me inside. I was stunned by the difference in décor but scolded myself from being distracted.  
“Again I ask what has earned me this visit?” He said sweeping around me to sit behind the desk, lifting his legs to cross them at the ankle on the corner of the desk.  
“Richard.”  
“Oh” he lifted an elegant eyebrow in my direction, “is he now sending his human girlfriend with messages.”  
“Actually he has no idea I’m here and I plan on keeping it that way,” I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes, “wow.” I couldn’t help myself. They really were just as blue as I remembered. “your eyes are amazing.”  
He chuckled and I felt it roll over my skin seductively, but it didn’t pull me in like last time, “you are very bold Bijou.”  
“what does that mean, Bijou?” I asked letting myself get farther distracted.  
“It is your name in French, Jewel.” He cocked his head studying me, “you are looking into my eyes, how are you looking into my eyes?”  
“Cross.” I smirked.  
“And how did you get your holy item past the security check?”  
“By putting it no one would dare look,” it was my turn for the cocky grin, “my bra.”  
“oh you are full of surprises,” he laughed that magnificent laugh again, “but none of this is why you came here.”  
“No Its not, May I sit?” I asked inclining my head at the chairs.  
“Oui.” I dropped into one of the visitors chairs and did my best not to flash the vampire across from me the fact that I hadn’t been able to even put underwear on under the dress.  
“Richard has kind of explained to me, loosely the whole three some thing you and him and Anita have going on.”  
“Has he now?” again he quirked an eye brow.  
“just that you are all linked and there is no way to brake the link.”  
“very loosely I see.”  
“it’s not the point. I am working very hard to convince Richard he isn’t a monster, which is hard when even members of his pack have called him a monster. If you are connected to him the way he says you are then damn it you should be concerned with his happiness.”  
“I have given up on Richard’s moods long ago, they become tire some.”  
“Jesus, you people are ridiculous.” I threw my hands in the air and stood up to pace the office, my green spike heels sinking into the carpet. I whirled on him, hands on my hips, “I’m not asking you to help change his mood what I’m demanding is that you not piss him off!”  
“I would love to give into your demands ma cheri however there are cases where my mere existence pisses Richard off.”  
“Listen I’ve been doing some research, you and Anita are a thing, Anita and Richard used to be a thing. I don’t really care, I just want Richard happy and mentally healthy. The first time I met him outside of class he saved my life, some Vampire was trying to rip my throat out and he saved me, the next morning he sat at my kitchen table and called himself a monster, this hero of a man who had saved me was calling himself a monster. Last Saturday I had to beg and threaten him to take me to the Circus, and we were having a wonderful time, we don’t get date nights very often between his classes, family and the pack so I kinda like to keep them fun and happy when we do.” I strode over to the desk and planted my hands on it, “so I’m going to make you a deal, when ever Richard gets into one of his little moods with you call me, I’ll talk to him, try to help out where I can, and in return you will not interrupt another date night unless someone is in danger of death, deal?”  
“I can very much see why he is so taken with you, and I agree with Jason that you and Anita will either come to love each other or try to kill each other.” He said with a grin, “but I will except your deal, and call you when Richard is in a … mood as you called it and will do my best not to interrupt any more date nights. Is there anything else?”  
“yeah the food at the circus kind of sucked.” I grinned. He threw his head back and laughed full throated. After he stopped laughing he offered to escort me back to the exit. I graciously slipped my arm through his and let him lead me from the office and down the first set of stairs. We passed the red head who was now smirking and just then Richard came up the stairs and I felt my heart sink.  
“What are doing here?" He growled.  
“Richard, why are you here, you should be in class.” I took a step forward, my arm sliding out of Jean-Claude’s.  
“Yeah well I cut class short when I got word that my Girlfriend had a meeting with the Master of the City.” His eyes narrowed as he took in what I as wearing. “and what the hell are you wearing?”  
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the patronizing tone of his voice, “Really Richard who are you my father?”  
“What are you doing here Jewel?” he said again just as Anita made the top of the stairs.  
“what the hell are you two doing here?” She snapped.   
“Maybe we should take this some place more private?” Jean-Claude suggested.  
Taking a deep breath I whirled on him, “You Stay out of this, we had our talk and made our deal, we are done for the night,” I turned back to Richard and stabbed a finger into his chest, “You need to learn to trust me Richard, I do not need you to rescue me from this, and we will discuss this when we get home. And you,” I turned to face Anita, “I am so done with you thinking you have absolutely any say on what I do or where I go, this is a public place, the circus was a public place and I will go where ever the fuck I want to. Now if we can all maybe act like fucking adults I would like to go home.” I went to walk toward the stairs and froze when Richard reached out to grab my arm.  
“we aren’t done talking Jewel.” His voice was low.  
“Nor will we have a domestic in public Richard,” I glared up at him.  
“I don’t want you as part of all of this.”  
“Well that’s to damn bad Richard, because you are part of this and I am part of you, and unless you’ve decided you no longer want me as part of your life, I am part of this. Now let go of my arm Richard.”  
“you knew this was wrong its why you did it on a day I had a night class.”  
“oh for goodness sake Richard, I wasn’t wrong but I knew you wouldn’t want me here, you seem to think you have to protect me from this side of your life, because this side isn’t the bright sunshiny life that you want, but this is part of you and you will not hide any part of you from me.”  
“No I don’t want you in this part of my life Jewel, I don’t want you to see the Monster part of me.”  
Hearing him call himself a monster again made the thin hold on my temper snap, and I whirled to finally face him ripping my arm from his grasp just as my other hand flashed up and I smacked him, “You. Are. Not. A. Monster.” I grit out between my teeth, “Say it.”  
He looked at me with wary eyes, “Jewel,”  
“No Richard Say it.” I growled glaring at him.  
“We aren’t doing this here Jewel,”  
“Say it Richard or so help me god you will spend the next month in the spare room.”  
“I’m not a monster.” He mumbled out the words, cheeks flushing red like an embassies school boy.  
“Louder.” The word was a growl in my throat.  
“I’m not a monster.”  
“Good now that we have that out of the way lets go home.” I turned and walked down the stairs, just barley catching Anita’s last remark.  
“Jason was right, I think I do like her,” followed by Jean-Claude’s seductive laugh.


End file.
